Eye drops are a common form of medication that is readily available in many stores across the nation and are mainly used as a basic first aid to eye injuries.
What to do
i) The first lesson in using eye drops as a basic first aid tool is to make sure that you include adequate amounts of the medication. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot use all the eye drop at once. What’s more, your eye can only take a drop at a time otherwise the rest of the medication goes to waste when you put in too much of the eye drops. In fact, when your dosage indicates four drops every six hours, this does not mean that all the four drops are used at once. Spread the application of the drops over time; it is one of the golden rules in learning how to use eye drops.
ii) Use the same brand of eye drops all through in order to get the most of the prescription. Mixing different brands can easily cause your eyes to be irritated and this only worsens the condition. If possible, talk to the eye specialist about the different medications you intend to use in order to determine the way forward.
iii) Make sure that you keep track of the dosages that you get in order to get proper treatment. Failure to do this could alter the course of treatment, making it worse for patients. As a general rule in learning how to use eye drops, patients are advised to place a drop to be on the safe side in case they cannot recall whether they already had their eye medication or not.
What not to do
i) Do not skip dosages just because you are set to have a doctor’s appointment on that day, after all, the reason for the appointment is to gauge whether there has been progress as far as the treatment is concerned
ii) Do not forget to check the expiry date of the eye medication. As a matter of fact, you should do this when getting the prescription to make sure that you have the right medication with you.
iii) One of the golden rules when learning how to use eye drops is to avoid self diagnosis. Do not treat yourself just because you woke up one day and realized that you had red eyes. The obvious reason for this is that the condition of your eyes could be indicative of a greater underlying problem.
iv) Lastly, you must always check the contents of the medication prior to using it on your eyes. Part of knowing how to use eye drops means knowing what you are using so that any confusion does not arise.