How To Instil Eye Drops

By Author: Dr. Amrita Sodhi
Total Articles: 5
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Whether you’ve caught on an infection from your school mate or have dry eyes from spending too much time at the computers or have acquired glaucoma in your old age… we all have faced situations where we need to use eye drops. Have you asked your eye specialist the exact technique for instilling eye drops? Are you sure the drops always find its intended destination?

Here are some tips and tricks that eye doctors in Mumbai suggest to ensure that you instil eye drops correctly:

How To Instil Eye Drops:

1. Wash your hands properly
2. Remove the cap of the eye drop bottle carefully ensuring that the tip does not touch anything.
3. You may sit/ stand / lie down. Tilt your head backwards if you are sitting or standing and look up. Use a mirror if you are putting the drops yourself.
4. Pull your lower eyelid away from your eye very gently to form a pouch.
5. Position the bottle vertically over this region. Squeeze the bottle gently and allow one drop to fall inside the lower eyelid. Look down, release your eyelid and close your eye. Do not squeeze or roll your eye around.
6. Press ...
... the inside corner of your closed eye with the tip of your index finger for at least two minutes. This minimizes the absorption of the eye drop from the tear duct, nose and throat into the blood by blocking the tear duct openings. Eye doctors in Mumbai advise: Absorption of the drug into the blood may give rise to side effects depending on the drug in the eye drop. This also helps in keeping the eye drop in your eye where it is required.
7. After using the drops, wash your hands immediately, to remove any medication that may be remaining on them.

A few tips:

• If your hands shake too much, you can approach your eyes from the sides so that you can rest your hand on your face to help steady it.
• If you are not sure if the drop has gone into your eye, you may place the eye drop in the refrigerator (not freezer). When the cold drops go in you will be able to feel it and know for sure that it has gone in.
• Follow your eye doctor’s instructions. Do not over medicate or under medicate on your own.
• Dr Vandana Jain, one of the prominent Eye Doctors in Mumbai advises, If you need to put more than one drop, wait for five minutes between the two drops. This will prevent the second drop from washing the first drop out before it has done its work.
• If you have trouble holding the eye drop bottle because it feels too small to hold, wrap a paper towel around it to make it wider.
• If you have been prescribed an eye ointment and eye drops both, use the eye drops first.
• Throw out the bottle after the recommended time. This is usually four weeks after you have broken open the seal.

Many eye doctors in Mumbai have seen patients where the prescribed remedy did not seem to work until they corrected the faults in the eye drop instillation techniques. Still not sure you are doing it the right way? Ask your eye specialist. They would only be glad to show you.