Most people are not taught how to use eye drops. You get handed a bottle, you tip your head back, and you hope. Some of it lands, some of it runs down your cheek, and you are never quite sure whether the dose counted.
Technique matters more than it sounds like it should. A drop that misses, or lands and then blinks straight out, is a dose you did not get. With medicated drops for an infection or for glaucoma, that can be the difference between a treatment working and stalling.
Before you open the bottle
Wash your hands with soap and dry them. This is the single step people skip most often, and it is the one that protects you from moving bacteria from your fingers to your eye.
Check the label for the name and the strength, especially if you are using more than one bottle. Look at the expiration date. Many bottles also have a rule about discarding them a set number of weeks after opening, so it helps to write the opening date on the label with a marker.
Look at the liquid. If it has changed color, gone cloudy when it should be clear, or has anything floating in it, do not use it. Some drops are suspensions meant to look milky and need shaking first, which the label will say.
The pocket method, step by step
Rather than aiming at the eyeball, you build a small shelf out of your lower lid and drop into that. It is far more forgiving.
- Sit or stand with your head tilted back, or lie down flat if that is steadier for you.
- Use one finger to pull your lower lid gently down and away from the eye. A small trough appears between the lid and the white of your eye. That is the pocket.
- Look up at the ceiling, away from the tip of the bottle. Looking away helps your eye stay open.
- Hold the bottle upside down about an inch above the pocket. Steady your hand by resting the heel of it on your forehead or cheekbone.
- Squeeze out one drop. Only one. Your eye cannot physically hold two, so the second one is spillage.
- Close your eye gently. Do not squeeze it shut and do not blink hard, because both pump the drop out.
Keep the eye closed for a minute or two. That quiet minute is doing real work, giving the drop time to spread across the surface instead of draining away.
The tear duct press
While your eye is closed, press a fingertip lightly against the inner corner, right where the lid meets the side of your nose. Hold it for about a minute.
There is a small drainage opening there that carries tears into your nose and throat. Blocking it briefly keeps more of the drop on your eye and less of it running into your system. It also cuts down on the odd taste some drops leave at the back of the throat. Worth doing with any drop, and especially with medicated ones.
Keeping the tip clean
The dropper tip should never touch your eye, your lashes, your fingertip, or the counter. One contact is enough to seed the bottle with bacteria, and you then reapply that to your eye every time you use it.
A few habits that help:
- Set the cap down on its side rather than face down on a surface.
- Do not wipe the tip clean or rinse it.
- Never share a bottle with anyone, including family, and never use a bottle prescribed for someone else.
- If the tip does touch something, ask your pharmacist whether the bottle should be replaced.
More than one drop, and contact lenses
If you have two different drops due at the same time, wait about five minutes between them. Otherwise the second one simply washes the first one off before it has been absorbed.
When one of them is an ointment or a gel, save it for last, since thick products hold liquids out. If you have both a medicated drop and a lubricating drop, ask your doctor or pharmacist which should go first, because it is not always obvious from the labels.
Contact lenses come out before drops go in, unless your doctor has told you otherwise. Many drops contain preservatives that soak into soft lenses and build up against your cornea. As a general rule, wait about fifteen minutes after the drop before you put the lenses back in, and follow any timing your doctor gave you instead.
Doing it for someone else
A child
Explain what will happen first, in short words, and have the child lie down flat. If they clamp their eyes shut, you can put the drop in the inner corner of the closed eye and let it roll in when they open. That is less accurate but better than a wrestling match. Giving them a job, like counting to ten, works better than telling them to hold still.
An older relative
Shaky hands and arthritis make this harder. Sitting with the head supported against a high chair back is steadier than standing. Pharmacies sell simple guides that grip the bottle and rest against the brow bone, which can turn a daily struggle into a routine. Practicing with a bottle of artificial tears first takes the pressure off.
Common questions
What if I am not sure the drop went in?
If you felt nothing and your eye is dry, put in one more. A single extra drop of most products is not dangerous, though you should ask your doctor about this specifically with glaucoma drops or steroids.
Is stinging normal?
A brief sting or a few seconds of blur is common with many drops. Burning that lasts, swelling of the lid, a rash, or vision that gets worse is not. Stop and call the prescriber.
Can I make up a dose I missed?
Usually you take the next dose at the normal time rather than doubling up. Ask your pharmacist about your specific drop, since the answer differs by medication.
Do it the same way for a week and it stops being a production. If the drops are not helping, if you cannot get them in at all, or if the symptom that started this is getting worse, that is a conversation for a professional. You can search for an eye doctor who takes your vision plan and bring the bottles with you.