With changes in people’s lifestyles and working conditions, more and more time is spent using the eyes, such as using computers, mobile phones, and games for a long time.
Long-term visual fatigue can easily lead to symptoms such as dry eyes and red eyes. In order to avoid these problems, many people regard eye drops as a “must have at home”. But how to use eye drops correctly? Shen Lei, Deputy Chief Physician and Director of Comprehensive Ophthalmology Department of Aier Eye Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University (Aier Eye Hospital Group Hubei General Hospital) said this!
It is not recommended to blindly use eye drops
1. To distinguish eye drops, look at the batch number. The accurate font size is for medicines, the healthy font size is for health care products, the elimination size is for disinfection products, and the makeup font size is for cosmetics. In principle, there is no batch number of drugs that cannot be used in large quantities. The drugs prepared by the hospital are used for short-term use according to the doctor’s order.
2. OCT medicines are medicines that can be sold in pharmacies, but it is safer to use them after consulting with a doctor. After all, some medicines are very targeted, and they are harmful if they are used incorrectly.
3. Adults can’t use children’s eye drops. In our outpatient clinic, parents often use children’s mydriatic medicine, which causes fear of light and blurred vision, which affects driving and checking mobile phones.
4. Some eye drops claim to eliminate eye redness because of the addition of blood vessel-constricting drugs. After eyedropping, the redness is temporarily relieved, but it may cover up the real condition of the eye and delay timely treatment. The reason is that Just like our stomach pains, taking painkillers casually covers up diseases such as appendicitis and gastric perforation, delaying timely treatment, and causing disasters.
5. We all know the problem of preservatives. In fact, some dry eyes are actually caused by our random eye drops. Therefore, if we must buy medicines, preservative-free ones are the first choice.
The method of instilling eye drops is also very important, especially for the elderly. It is not uncommon for the cornea to be damaged by the wrong method.
The correct use of eye drops
The first step: clean your hands, open the cap, and avoid contact with other items to avoid contamination.
Step 2: Tilt your head back as much as possible or lie down, and use your index finger to pull down the lower eyelid and separate it from the eyeball.
Step 3: Aim the mouth of the eye drop bottle at the eye, point it in the conjunctival fornix, and drop 1 to 2 drops. Note that the mouth of the eye drop bottle should not touch the eyes or eyelashes as much as possible to prevent contamination of the bottle, and the bottle cap should be closed immediately after dispensing.
Step 4: After instilling the eye drops, gently close your eyes and press the inner corner of the eye with your index finger for 2 to 3 minutes to prevent the eye drops from flowing back into the nose and mouth.
Step 5: Before opening your eyes, use a tissue to wipe off any eye drops or tears that run around your eyes.
Tips: If you need to order 2 to 3 kinds of eye drops, each of them should be separated by 5 to 10 minutes; if you need to use eye drops and eye ointment at the same time, you should first drop the eye drops, and then reapply after 5 minutes. eye ointment.
Shelf life of eye drops
Director Shen Lei reminded: the shelf life of eye drops is generally one month after opening. The shelf life is longer because its special device keeps the eye drops from retracting into the bottle, causing contamination.