so spring time is here. and that means it is allergy season, we are talking about red
and itchy eyes, the puffy eyelids, the watery eyes, all those things.
And thankfully we have some new over the counter eye drops available which I think will be
the best eye drops for itchy eyes this season.
Lets take a look.
Hey what's up this is Dr. allen here from the Doctor Eye Health show, helping you take
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Now today we are talking all about allergic conjunctivitis and having itchy eyes.
Being that it is allergy season, a lot of us get red itchy eyes, the eyes begin to tear
and water and it can be really annoying.
Thankfully we have new eye drops that have become over the counter and are available
at almost any pharmacy.
These newly available allergy eye drops go by the name of Pataday and prescription wise
eye doctors will know this as olapatadine and has been around for some time and used
to be only available through a prescription from your doctor.
But thankfully this medication has more or less lost its patent which means its now generic
and then they approved it for having it being sold over the counter because it's just so
safe.
What's cool about Pataday is that it works two ways, first as an antihistamine so if
you are having an allergic response having red itchy eyes right now, it will help sooth
those symptoms.
But it also has what is called a mast stabilizer effect which helps prevent future outbreaks
from allergies.
So a lot of patients I know they had allergic responses, these bad allergies every spring
time, as soon as the snow starts melting and spring starts coming out they immediately
start using it just on a regular basis to help prevent future outbreaks.
Now if you end up going to your local pharmacy or if you choose to purchase things online
you will notice three formulations of pataday.
There is the regular strength which you use twice a day, twice a day dosing you use once
in the morning and then once at night.
Then they have a stronger form which is just a once a day dosing.
Now both of these have been out for almost the last year but now there is an Extra Strength
version of Pataday that just released.
Eye Doctors and other patients who have used it before may recognize this one as what is
called Pazeo.
Thankfully, Pazeo, the stronger for had been in the like 200-300 dollar range when it was
a prescription.
Thankfully this is now available and is probably the strongest and most potent antihistamine
you can get for eye drops that are again over the counter.
But I think this is great because it helps a lot of my patients and its so safe I didn't
fully understand why it was prescription only in the first place.
The truth is it is a pharmacy game and they want to make money so things are expensive.
And thankfully olapatadine or Pataday, these different formulations of Pataday are approved
for ages of 2 and older, so younger kids can use them safely.
And just as the box says these eye drops work for allergies against pet dander, grass, ragweed,
pollen, all these things.
Now there's actually one other new drop that is just coming out which has a unique benefit
over the current Pataday.
Now Pataday I personally love because of how it works, but these formulations are in bigger
bottles and that means they have Preservatives in them.
Specifically one called BAK or Benzalkonium Chloride which can be pretty toxic to the
surface of the eye.
In fact, some people are allergic to BAK, including myself.
My eyes get really irritated whenever I am using prescription medications that have BAK
as a preservative.
So thankfully now another eye drop known as Ketotifen under the brand name Alaway has
release a preservative free form of Alaway.
So if your somebody who knows you are very sensitive to preservatives, maybe you have
tried pataday and it if anything it may make your eyes feel worse, certainly try to go
ahead and reach for something like Alaway that is in the preservative free formulation.
Again, thankfully no preservatives and none of that bad irritation.
And while yes, Pataday is good for ages 2 and older, Ketotifen or Alaway is good for
ages 3 and older.
Now these again are just eye drops for allergies and there are many other ways to manage your
allergy symptoms and I have a whole other video going more in depth into what is causing
eye allergies and other strategies to holding those symptoms at bay.
If you want to learn a little bit more I will put a link to that in the video card up above
as well as in putting that in the description below so you can find it easily.
Otherwise let me know what is causing your allergy symptoms, I know myself, when I was
younger I was allergic to some type of bird, like a parakeet that we had, I eventually
developed a cat allergy which thankfully I grew out of because now I have a cat.
Otherwise I have always been allergic to dust, spores, mold and fungus really anything that
grows in a damp basement.
Otherwise I hope your springtime allergy season goes well, if you do have any extreme problems
were things are not getting better make sure to talk to your eye doctor and have them evaluated
to make sure it is something like eye allergies or is it something more severe like vernal
keratoconjunctivitis or maybe its something where steroids or some other prescription
medication would be necessary.
Otherwise thank you again so much for watching, smash that like button, subscribe to the channel,
keep an eye on it and we will talk to you soon.