when suffering from dry eye syndrome or having red irritated eyes many people
reach for lubricating eye drops and it's easy to assume that all eye drops work the same
but in reality finding the best eye drops for dry eyes can be a lot harder than you might think and
there's a lot more to consider when deciding which eye drops to use so in this video i'm
going to walk you through the best eye drops for dry eyes that are available in the market
right now so that you can find the best eye drop for you that's today's video let's take a look
hello and welcome this is Dr. Allen here from the Dr. Eye Health show helping you learn all
about the eyes vision and finding the best vision products if you're new here to the
channel definitely consider hitting that subscribe button down below and turning on notifications so
that you don't miss any of our future videos now i see patients every single day in the eye clinic
specifically for treating their dry eye syndrome i myself even struggle a little bit from my dry eyes
and one of the most common questions one of the most common frustrations for people is which eye
drop should they be using for their dry eyes what is best for them and it can be really confusing
and frustrating because you go to the store and you can see just a vast aisle of different options
for a dry eye and how are you supposed to know which eye drops are the best
what are their ingredients and really what you can have success with and that's exactly why
i'm making this video and putting this video in a complete series all about finding the best eye
drops for dry eyes red eyes and itchy eyes if you want to check out that full series i'll put a link
to that in the top of the video description below so you can find it easily plus stay tuned toward
the end of this video because i'm going to share a money saving hack that could save you up to 70
percent off of your eye drop medications so first of all understand that the eye drops for dry eyes
are not all made the same in fact they are specifically designed and formulated
to treat different types of dry eye syndrome there are three major classifications of dry eye
the first is called aqueous deficient dry eye which is where somebody doesn't make enough
of the water component to their tear film this is usually due to hormone changes or from autoimmune
conditions such as sjogren's syndrome the second classification is called evaporative forms of dry
eye and this is really common this is usually because someone's oil glands and their eyelids
called the meibomian glands aren't functioning properly and that causes poor tear film stability
and then that eventually leads to their tear film just evaporating into the air and then the
third classification is called mixed dry eye and that's a combination of one of the two the aqueous
deficient plus evaporative forms of dry eye and it's found that somewhere between eighty and
ninety percent of everybody with dry eye syndrome falls somewhere in that mixed dry eye category
but if you happen to be using an eye drop that's specifically meant for aqueous deficient dry eye
when in fact you have more of the evaporative form of dry eye then it's just not going to work
as well and if you're not exactly sure which type of dry eye syndrome you have that's okay
i highly encourage that you do reach out to your local eye care professional so they can give you
an evaluation and help you navigate what is going on and how they can help but now let's go over
the best eye drops for dry eyes that are out right now for each of these types of dry eye now because
most people have some form of mixed dry eye my top two favorite picks are Systane Complete and
Refresh Digital, Systane Complete has an active ingredient called propylene glycol which is seen
across many different eye drops but propylene glycol works as an additive to your tears which
helps spread across the eye evenly and protect the mucous membranes of the eye so if you're
somebody with aqueous deficient dry eye you're actually getting a supplement that is going to
protect and coat the eye so when your eyelid is coming down it's not just dry tissue on dry
tissue instead it's going to have that protective coating over the eye but at that same time Systane
Complete also has mineral oil in it which is commonly used as an oil base to help supplement
the oils not being produced by the eyelids in the form of evaporative forms of dry eye
so this is going to help protect and balance the tear film so that it doesn't evaporate so quickly
what really makes Systane Complete stand out against its other competitors is that they have
nano droplet technology which helps make these active ingredients much much smaller which helps
spread the artificial tear over the surface of the eye creating kind of this tight-knit
web of these active molecules to help really coat the eye and give it complete protection my other
favorite for the mixed forms of dry eye is that of Refresh Digital refresh digital is a newer
drop to the market but contains a unique triad of active ingredients such as carboxymethylcellulose
glycerin and polysorbate which all act again to cover the surface of the eye improve viscosity
and protect the mucous membranes of the eye so that when you're blinking you have this nice
coating to protect as the eye blinks they also included castor oil in this formulation which
again acts as an oil base to help prevent the tears from evaporating from the surface
so again you have the combination of both treating the aqueous and the evaporative forms and that's
exactly why it's so ideal for the mixed forms of dry eye and that's why i say for most people
even if you don't know what type of dry eye you have these two are probably the best two middle
grounds to kind of start off with for relieving your dry eye symptoms now outside of mixed forms
of dry eye the next most prevalent is that of evaporative dry eye and that's what i struggle
from my tear film is not stable because my oil glands on my eyelids don't produce well enough and
then the tear film is unstable and it evaporates too quickly so my favorite eye drop for patients
who have this type of dry eye is that of Refresh Mega three, Refresh mega three not only contains
castor oil to help stabilize the tear film but they also contain flaxseed oil so you have two
different oil bases to help stop those tears from evaporating in addition it also has an ingredient
called trehalose which is often not seen in many eye drops but trehalos has been found to help
stabilize cell membranes on the surface of the eye against osmolarity or salt concentration changes
because usually as your tears evaporate the salt in those tears stays behind and that can cause
damage to the surface of the eye on the surface of the cornea which can therefore lead to more
dryness issues and symptoms but also to blurred vision just some other brands that i've used with
success in the past are that of Systane Balance, Soothe xp as well as Retain mgd all of these are
fitting into that evaporative dry eye component now if you're somebody with aqueous deficient
dry eye either because you have sjogren's syndrome or maybe you had lasik eye surgery and your cornea
isn't sending the signals to your brain and your lacrimal gland to make more tears then
reaching for something such as Systane Hydration or Refresh Relieva may be your best choice both
of these eye drops contain a naturally occurring ingredient called sodium hyaluronate which acts
to make the tears of the eye drop stick to the surface of the eye better so the drop is not
just hitting the eye and sliding and draining out instead it's hitting the eye and sticking there
which i personally find very comforting however it can blink a few times and you can tell that it's
just a little bit sticky on your eyes but for those having aqueous deficient dry eye that's
basically exactly what you need now next up i want to share with you a money saving hack that you can
use for eye drop medications but i also want to go over preservatives and how important preservatives
can be for the surface of the eye before we do that drop a comment in the section below
which part of this video is your favorite which one of these eye drops have you tried and had the
most success with or if you've used other types of eye drops and had great success with those let
us know in the comments because i hopefully your comments will help other people in this community
learn more about dry eye and what's going to help them the best now the way you can save money with
your eye drops whether it be for dry eye drops or for eye drops for glaucoma and things like
that you can look into nano dropper this is a new topper that screws on to most standard eye drops
and then it changes the size of the droplet that's coming out so instead of this large eye drop and
then dribbles down the side often wasting much of that teardrop instead it makes it smaller so
you're getting just the right amount you need onto the eye without changing the effectiveness
of that drop and because you're using much less drops you're basically extending the life
of that eye dropper by about seventy percent if you wanna check out nanodropper yourself i'll
put a link to their website in the description below but i'll also include a discount code called
allen10 my last name A L L E N 10 to save 10 off your first order this is not a sponsored video i
don't even receive commission from this this is just because the team of nano dropper have made
this amazing thing and they're just a cool company so definitely go check them out now the final tip
i want to share is that of preservatives versus preservative-free formulations now most of the
eye drop bottles that you'll find out there whether it be dry eye or medications for a
glaucoma or antibiotics they're usually preserved with what's called BAK Benzalkonium chloride now
this medication or this preservative is very potent at what it does however it can cause some
surface issues to the eye it is known to cause nerve damage it's known to delay wound healing
and it can even cause a toxic reaction to the surface of the eye so if you're using eye drops
repeatedly over and over throughout the day it could cause more irritation and damage to the eye
than good which is why all the new drops that i mentioned in this video none of them contain bak
instead they contain either polyquad or ocupure which are preservatives which are known to not
cause so much irritation to the surface of the eye but still many eye doctors like
myself will recommend patients to use or look for non-preserved formulations for their eye
drops and you can often find these in these small little plastic tubes that have a twist off top
that you use for multiple drops into each eye and then you're supposed to discard it and those type
of drops you can use as many times throughout the day even with contact lenses or with other
eye drops on the eye and they're not going to have that preservative to cause any problems
and i think this is good to know because if you are also shopping for generic eye drops these
generics often replace these good preservatives for bak because it's much cheaper so in fact
even though the active ingredients may be the same as some of these other drops i mentioned
often times the preservative has changed and could cause more toxic reactions to the surface
of the eye i just want you to be informed and be aware of what you're putting in your eye otherwise
thank you so much for watching keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon