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Hello.
My name is Henry Jampel, and I'm a faculty member
in the Glaucoma Center of Excellence, and a practicing glaucoma specialist.
In this video we are going to be talking about how to use your eye drops.
Although glaucoma can with operating room surgery and office laser treatment.
Most glaucoma patients, at one time or another,
will need to use eye drops for their disease.
Many eye doctors and patients underestimate the
difficulty involved in instilling an eye drop.
The most important errors that we observed were touching the
tip of the bottle to the skin or the eyeball itself.
This can result in contamination and possible infection.
We also observed individuals who miss the eye
entirely with the eye drop and others who squeeze
the bottle forcefully enough so that many eye
drops instead of one are instilled in the eye.
One should always wash one's hands before placing an eye drop
Assume a comfortable position, either on the sofa or on the bed.
The point is to get the face pointed towards the ceiling.
Grab the bottle with your dominant hand between your thumb and your forefinger.
After removing the cap from the bottle, grab a tissue with your other hand.
Pull down on your lower lid.
This creates a pocket or target for you to aim for with the eyedrop.
With some bottles the drop, when the bottle is inverted, will
spontaneously leave the tip, and will hit the surface of your eye.
With other types of bottles, you will need to apply gentle
pressure, blot any extra fluid that you feel on your cheek.
If you're using eye drops in both eyes, repeat in the other eye.
Remember, just because you Feel fluid on your cheek does not
mean that you did not get the drop in your eye.
Glaucoma eye drops are medication and they do have the potential to
travel from the eye into the back of the mouth and nose.
From there they can enter the bloodstream and
potentially cause side effects that affect the whole body.
Although there's only a small percentage of patients
where this will occur, you should ask your eye
doctor whether he should perform eyelid closure to reduce
the amount of medication that gets into your body.
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>> How many drops need to go in the eye?
>> Although some pharmacists and some prescription pads will want a
specification of one or two drops, the answer is always one.
>> If I am using more than one bottle
of medication, how long should I wait between bottles?
>> You should wait at least 3 minutes.
However there is no reason to space the drops out throughout the day.
>> How do I know if I get the drop in the eye?
>> You know you've got the drop in the eye, if you feel something on the eye.
Perhaps stinging, or burning or just redness.
>> Why are some bottles harder to use?
So, the bottles and bottle tips are not regulated.
For that reason, some bottles may be easier to use than others.
>> What about the generics?
We largely support the use of generic eyedrops for
glaucoma Food and Drug Administration has required that both
the active drug and all the other components of
the drops be identical between generics and branded drugs.
>> What if the bottle of drops runs out before I am ready for a refill?
>> This is a common complaint of patients, their three
month supply of eye drops is gone after two months.
Fortunately, many states including Maryland have passed laws that require
prescription plans and pharmacies to refill early for this very reason.
However, you maybe asked to ask pay that co pay.
>> What if I am still not sure that I am using the eye drops correctly?
>> If you are not sure that you are doing it correctly.
Please tell your eye doctor or one of his or her staff And they
will be happy to watch you and still the eye drops and make suggestions.
Successfully using eye drops is a complex process.
However, if you keep your appointments with your doctor.
If you make sure that you do not run out of your eye medications.
If you take care to instill them properly.
And if you inform your eye doctor about any side effects you
can greatly reduce your risk of blindness with minimal effect upon your lifestyle.
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