Why are there so many eye drops?
Walking down most store pharmaceutical aisles, you can probably find more than a dozen different type of eye drops to relieve almost any symptom and condition of the eyes. From eye drops for red eyes to dry eyes and even pink eye, there are plenty of them to use for your eye condition. Why are there so many? Because the eyes are one of the most sensitive body parts and we use them all of the time. The eyes are affected by everything we do from eye strain from focusing on an object, watching tv or using the computer, and to environmental pollution or allergic elements in the air. With so many eye drops available, how do you even start to find which eye drops should you use. Hopefully this article can help determine which eye drops are best for your condition.
Eye drops for Dry, Red, and Itchy Eyes?
We start with the simpler conditions of dry eyes and red eyes. If you are like me you have had both of these conditions. Whenever there is some significant wind or when I am using the computer too long, my eyes will get really dry and start to tear. This condition is dry eyes and some people face chronic dry eyes and are always faced with this condition. There are plenty of drops designed for relief of dry eyes. There are plenty of dry eye drops designed to help moisturize the eyes. Brands include Visine, Bausch and Lomb, and Theratears. You may find the simpler ones just as effective or that the dry eye drops designed like natural tears are better. It usually depends on the person. For chronic dry eyes, Allergan has produced Restasis, a prescription eye drop specifically designed to help with chronic dry eyes.
For the itchy eyes or red eyes caused by allergic reactions or late nights, there are plenty of eye drops with antihistamines and other relief elements. These eye drops not only relieve the eyes of redness but can prevent itchy and water eyes produced from allergic elements such as pollen, pet dander, and others. Useful brands include Visine-A, Clear Eyes ACR, and Bausch and Lomb's Opcon-A.
Eye drops for serious conditions
If you are one of the many people who have contracted pink eye in some way or the other, then you know the annoyances of the condition. Luckily, there is now an OTC eye drop available to help relieve some of the condition of pink eye. Similasan's Pink Eye Relief eye drops are currently available in stores without a prescription for relief of some of the symptoms of pink eye. For pink eye that will not go away, obtaining a prescription eye drop might be more useful.
For many serious eye conditions like glaucoma, a condition where pressure in the eyes is at a high level, there are prescription eye drops designed to help relieve symptoms. For glaucoma for example, the prescription eye drop OptiPranolol® is designed to help decrease the pressure in the eyes. For other conditions such as lazy eye,cataracts, after laser surgeries, and uveitis there are eye drops that can help reduce inflammation and other problems as well.
For people who use eye drops, it is important to know how to apply them correctly to not only waste the drops which can be quite expensive but to make them effective. We are providing a link to a pdf file from the America Society of Health-System Pharmacists to help people learn how to correctly apply eye drops. Click here to view the file
[Page updated 12/2010]
