How to use eye drops in adult patients?
1- Before using a new eye drop, try to make sure that the bottle is sealed and never been opened and also make sure that it is not expired.
2- Always wash your hand with water and soap and dry them off with clean towel or tissue.
3- Some medications need to be shaken before using them. Read the manual or ask your doctor about that for each eye drop you have.
4- It is always advisable to set down on a chair when you are using eye drops.
5- The bottle and the dropper should always kept clean so decrease or eliminate the risk of contamination and you should avoid touching the dropper tip against your eye lids or your skin.
6- Pull your head back.
7- Look up and Pull down your lower eye lid with your index and middle finger. This will create a pocket or a space between your eye lid and your eye ball. This space is called the fornix.
8- Hold the eye drop bottle with the other hand and move it closer to fornix or the space between eye lid and eye ball. Try not to touch your eyelid or eye lash and always keep it away from your eye ball.
9- Squeeze the bottle or the dropper and apply one or two drops in this pocket.
10- Close your eye lid gently after applying the eye drops for 1-2 minutes.
11- In order to block the eye drops from reaching your blood stream and in order to increase the presence of this medication in your eye, you should block the tear duct which presents in the inner corner of your eye, between your eye and nose. In case you don’t block the tear duct, you can feel the taste of the eye drop in your mouth because it runs down through the tear duct to your mouth. Blocking the tear duct will help to minimize the systemic side effects of the eye drop.
12- In case you are using more that one type of eye drop, wait 5-10 minutes between each one and always keep the ointment to the last.
13- The instruction of using eye ointment is the same as that for eye drop but don’t wear contact lens when you apply the ointment and also after applying the ointment for about 3-4 hours.
14- Don’t use eye drops while you are wearing your contact lens, take off your contact lens and wait 10-15 minutes after you apply the eye drops before wearing it again. However, You can use eye drops while wearing Bandage contact lens which is special type of lens that has a therapeutic effects. There are certain types of eye drops that can be used with contact lenses.
15- After you done from using the bottle, don’t wipe its tip and make sure to replace the cap and tighten it.
16- Read the storage instruction to make sure that you store it in the right place and always keep your medications away from sunlight, moisture, children and pets.
17- Wash your hands with water and soap to remove any medication.
How to use eye drops in infants and children?
Infant:
1- The infant should be laid down in bed.
2- It will be helpful to swaddle or wrap the baby tightly in a blanket.
3- Make sure the baby is calm down and try to feed him before applying the eye drop.
4- Gently, pull down the lower eye lid and apply the eye drops.
5- Follow the same instructions in how to use eye drops in adult.
Children:
1- In case the patient is a child, never allows the child to use the eye drops by him/her self. Always an adult should be the one who apply the eye drop to the child.
2- The child should be laid down in bed or sitting on chair.
3- Ask him to close both of his eyes gently.
4- While his both eyes are closed, ask him to look up.
5- Make sure that both of his arms are down at his side.
6- Keep the child busy by talking with him.
7- Gently pull down the lower eye lid and apply the eye drops.
8- Follow the same instructions in how to use eye drops in adult.