Eye drops are a common medication used to treat various eye conditions such as glaucoma, dry eye, allergies, and infections. Here are some general steps to apply eye drops:
- Practice good hygiene: Wash your hands with soap and water before handling the medication and touching your face.
- Tilt your head back and look up.
- With one hand, pull your lower eyelid down and away from your eyeball to create a "pocket" for the drops.
- With the other hand, hold the eye drop bottle upside down with the tip just above the pocket.
- Squeeze the prescribed number of eye drops into the pocket.
- Close your eye for at least one minute and press your finger lightly on your tear duct (small hole in the inner corner of your eye) to prevent the eye drop from draining into your nose.
If you need to use more than one type of eye drop, wait at least five minutes between each type. To avoid contamination, do not touch the dropper tip or let it touch your eye or any other surface. If you have trouble putting in eye drops, ask your eye doctor about special tools that can help.
The ingredients or materials of eye drops vary depending on the type of medication. Eye lubricants, for example, contain one or more of the following ingredients: carboxymethylcellulose, dextran, glycerin, hypromellose, polyethylene glycol 400 (PEG 400), polysorbate, polyvinyl alcohol, povidone, or propylene glycol, among others. Zaditor Ophthalmic eye drops contain ketotifen fumarate, while Polyvinyl Alcohol Ophthalmic eye drops contain polyvinyl alcohol.
It is important to use eye drops correctly to get the full benefit of the medication. If you are having trouble getting the drops in or using them on the right schedule, talk to your ophthalmologist about your options.
