do you have itchy irritated eyes from allergies then you're probably looking for the best
over-the-counter allergy eye drop that you can find well in this video i'm going over
my top two most favorite allergy eye drops that i recommend to my patients all the time
with one of them being a much anticipated preservative free allergy eye drop let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy with a show that keeps your eyes healthy
and your vision clear and i do videos all about the eyes including videos about the best
eye products now let's talk about the best over-the-counter allergy eye drops now usually
people that are suffering from eye allergies are probably suffering from allergic conjunctivitis
an inflammation of the conjunctiva caused by allergies now this can cause your eyes to get red
watery itchy your eyelids maybe will get itchy and irritated can cause your eyelids
to get puffy or swollen and you can experience this with the seasons seasonal allergies spring
and fall or perennial allergies all year round with pets pet dander dust dust mites or mold
now remember i'll hook you up with a link in the description below for the drops i'll talk about
so you can check out the updated prices for each drop the first drop that i recommend is called pat
a day now pat a day was a very common prescribed allergy eye drop that you'd get from your doctor
in fact i would prescribe it all the time the downside is that it would possibly be
pretty darn expensive and so a little over a year when it became over the counter
doctors and patients were doing jumping jacks of joy it's that good now the actual medication in
pataday is called olopatidine which is shown to be very effective a lot of times more effective
than other allergy eye drops and that's why it's so popular now olopatidine is an antihistamine
and a mast cell stabilizer meaning it will take care of your symptoms that you're having right now
and stabilize your eyes for the future currently you'll find three different formulations four pad
a day over the counter point one percent point two percent and point seven percent now the point one
percent version is a twice a day drop morning and night and the point two percent and point seven
percent are both once a day drops usually taking it in the morning and it works throughout the day
now pat a day is safe for ages two years and older with pat day i actually kind of like the twice a
day version better it feels better for me to have a drop in the morning and in the evening but if
you're not a fan of eye drops then i'd actually go for the extra strength version where you just put
it in the morning and it'll work the rest of the day now one thing when you talk about pat today is
that it does have a preservative in the eye drop it has the most common preservative found in most
eye drops it's called benzoylkonium chloride or BAK. the reason why this is significant is because
if you use an eye drop with the preservative back in it frequently a lot during the day
it's been shown to be toxic to the cornea now you probably won't have the problem with
pat a day because you're using it once a day or twice a day but there are some people that are
a little bit more sensitive to that preservative or even allergic to back and so if you're taking
allergy eye drops for your allergies but you're allergic to the preservative in the allergy eye
drop then it defeats the whole purpose of allergy eye drops allergies allergies allergies so this
leads me to the other eye drop that i'll strongly recommend now before we move on to the second
drop if your eyes are itchy because we're talking about itchy eyes when you go to scratch your eyes
come back down and click that like button with the mouse if you're finding value from this video
the next allergy eye drop that i strongly recommend now is the preservative free version
of alaway now the preserved version of alloy has been over the counter for a long time now
in fact alaway and zaditor were probably the most common eye drops that i would recommend before
pat a day became over the counter and now alaway is a little bit more unique with a preservative
free version now the actual medication in alaway is called ketotefin fumarate you'll probably hear
different ways to pronounce that word medication names are weird ketotefin fumarate is also an
antihistamine and a mast cell stabilizer like pat a day is and it's safe for ages three years and
older and like i said what makes this special is that it does not have any preservatives in the eye
drop it's strictly just the medication an alloy is a twice a day drop you'll use it in the morning
and in the evening now one thing to consider when comparing these drops is that the bottle version
will usually last you longer this patter day version the twice a day version is a 30-day supply
whereas the alaway preservative free version is a 10-day supply it has 20 vials in there
because you're using it twice a day so that's one thing to consider is the preservative free
alaway version will probably be more expensive you might have to buy more of them to get you
the same amount or length of time use as a bottle version and remember if you're experiencing these
symptoms and you try some allergy eye drops and the symptoms aren't getting better or maybe your
eyes are getting worse it's always best to go in get your eyes checked by your eye care doctor so
you know exactly what's going on there's a lot of different conditions that can cause your eyes
to be itchy red irritated watery and so you just want to have a proper diagnosis now if
you need some specific tips about your watery eyes make sure that you check out my other videos
specifically about watery eyes i'll put the link in the description below as well as up here also
let me know down in the comments below if you've tried pat a day or the preservative-free version
of alaway i'm kind of curious to hear how they're working for you thanks for checking out the video
i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy focusing on you and your eyes stay focused and make sure you check
out my other videos clicking or tapping the screen right there and i'll see you in the next video