An eye stye is a small, painful bump on the eyelid caused by a bacterial infection in one of the eyelid’s oil glands or hair follicles. Styes typically last one to two weeks and go away on their own. They look and feel a lot like a pimple: red, swollen, tender, and sometimes topped with a visible white or yellow head of pus.
What Causes a Stye
Your eyelids contain dozens of tiny oil glands that keep your eyes lubricated. When one of these glands gets blocked, bacteria (usually staph bacteria that naturally live on your skin) can multiply inside it, triggering an infection. The result is a localized, inflamed bump.
There are two types. An external stye forms near the base of an eyelash, in the small oil glands right at the lash line. This is the more common kind, and it’s the one you can usually see as a superficial pustule at the edge of your lid. An internal stye forms deeper inside the eyelid, in one of the larger oil-producing glands embedded in the lid itself. Internal styes tend to cause more diffuse swelling and are harder to see from the outside, though they can sometimes be spotted as a small bump on the inner surface of the lid.
Styes vs. Chalazia
A stye is sometimes confused with a chalazion, which also appears as a bump on the eyelid but develops differently. A stye is an active infection: it’s painful, red, and tends to stay at the eyelid margin. A chalazion is not infected. It forms when an oil gland gets blocked and the trapped oil irritates surrounding tissue, creating a firm, painless nodule closer to the center of the lid. Chalazia develop more slowly and can linger for weeks or months.
The practical difference matters because a stye usually resolves on its own in a week or two, while a chalazion that doesn’t shrink may eventually need a minor in-office procedure to drain it. Sometimes a stye that doesn’t fully clear can turn into a chalazion over time.
What a Stye Feels Like
The first thing most people notice is a localized burning or tenderness on one eyelid. Within a day or two, a red, swollen bump appears near the lash line (for external styes) or deeper in the lid (for internal ones). The bump is tender to the touch and may develop a small yellowish head of pus.
Beyond the bump itself, styes can cause:
- Watery eyes or tearing on the affected side
- A gritty, foreign-body sensation, as if something is stuck in your eye
- Light sensitivity in some cases
- Mildly blurred vision if the swelling presses against the eye’s surface
- Crusting along the eyelid margin, especially after sleep
The pain is generally mild to moderate and confined to the area of the bump. Your whole eye may look slightly red on the white part closest to the stye.
Who Gets Styes More Often
Anyone can get a stye, but certain conditions make them more likely to recur. Blepharitis, a chronic inflammation of the eyelid margins that causes crusting and irritation, is one of the most common underlying factors. When the eyelid margins are chronically inflamed, the oil glands are more prone to blockage, creating a favorable environment for infection.
Rosacea also raises the risk. The skin condition doesn’t just affect the cheeks and nose; ocular rosacea involves the eyelids and tear film, and people with it frequently develop recurrent styes and chalazia. If you keep getting styes, especially alongside persistent eye redness, dryness, or a burning sensation, an underlying condition like blepharitis or rosacea may be driving the cycle.
Other common contributors include touching or rubbing your eyes with unwashed hands, sleeping in eye makeup, and using old or contaminated cosmetics.
How Styes Are Treated
Most styes don’t need medical treatment. They drain on their own and resolve within one to two weeks. The main thing you can do to speed that process is apply warm compresses. Soak a clean washcloth in warm water, wring it out, and hold it gently against the closed eyelid. The heat helps soften the blocked oil and encourages the stye to drain naturally. Aim for 10 to 15 minutes at a time, several times a day, rewarming the cloth as it cools.
Resist the urge to squeeze or pop a stye. Squeezing can push the infection deeper into the eyelid or spread bacteria to surrounding tissue. Let it open and drain on its own. You should also avoid wearing contact lenses and eye makeup on the affected eye until it heals.
If a stye hasn’t started to improve after about a week of consistent warm compresses, or if the swelling is getting worse rather than better, a doctor may prescribe antibiotic ointment or drops. For styes that form a large, persistent pocket of pus, a doctor can perform a small incision to drain it in the office.
Preventing Recurrence
Good eyelid hygiene is the most effective way to prevent styes from coming back. Wash your hands before touching your face or eyes. If you wear eye makeup, remove it completely before bed and replace mascara and eyeliner every few months, since bacteria accumulate in the tubes and pencils over time. Avoid sharing eye cosmetics or applicators.
If you have blepharitis or tend to get crusty, irritated eyelid margins, a daily lid-cleaning routine helps keep the oil glands clear. You can use a warm washcloth or commercially available eyelid wipes to gently clean along the lash line each morning. For people with rosacea-related eye symptoms, treating the underlying rosacea reduces the frequency of styes.
When a Stye Becomes Serious
Styes are overwhelmingly harmless, but in rare cases the infection can spread beyond the bump into the soft tissue around the eye, a condition called periorbital (preseptal) cellulitis. This causes widespread redness and swelling of the entire eyelid and surrounding skin, not just a small bump. It requires prompt treatment with oral antibiotics.
Even more rarely, infection can spread behind the eye into the orbit itself. Warning signs of orbital cellulitis include the eye bulging forward, pain when moving the eye, restricted eye movement, and decreased vision. These symptoms need emergency evaluation. A simple stye won’t cause any of these things, but if swelling and redness are spreading well beyond the original bump, or you develop fever alongside worsening eyelid swelling, get it checked promptly.