Hello everyone, I am Dr. Audrey Tai, welcome back to my channel - Eye channel by eye surgeon.
I am a board certified and fellowship trained refractive and cataract surgeon, ophthalmologist
and cornea specialist, I am here to bring you the latest information on eye health and
medicine.
In today's video I'll show you three different over-the-counter dry eye drops that I would
NOT use to treat dry eye disease.
If you want to know which over-the-counter dry eye drops I do recommend, you can find
them in this video, (my top five over-the-counter dry eye drops).
I've also listed in the description below, links to some of the eyedrops that I recommend,
so you can check them out.
If you stay with me to the end of this video, I'll tell you about one lesser known eye drop
you may also want to look out for.
Number one: soothe maximum hydration lubricant eye drops by Bausch & lomb
the main reason I do not recommend this eye drop is the preservative they use in it.
The preservative contained in this eye drop is benzalkonium chloride or BAK.
There are three different types of preservatives that are commonly used in eye drops, detergent
type, oxidative type, and ionic buffering systems.
The detergent type of preservative is the most toxic type to the surface of the eye,
and BAK is the most toxic of the detergent type preservatives.
BAK is also commonly used in many different types of medication eyedrops, such as antibiotic
eyedrop, where its toxicity can actually be an advantage for short term use.
BAK can interfere with the connections between the cells on the surface of the eye, and reduce
the number of cells on the outer layer of the eye called epithelial cells.
Therefore it can be quite harmful to the eye surface when used frequently or over a long
period of time.
If you really like the family of soothe eyedrops, you would be better off using the soothe XP
lubricant eye drops from the same company, as they contain polyquad as the preservative.
Although polyquad is also a detergent type of preservative, it is less toxic than BAK,
because the cells on the surface of the eye tend to repel polyquad, making it less toxic
to the eye surface.
Even better among the soothe family of eyedrops are the preservative free eye drops.
If you would like to learn more about the science behind the ingredients of different
artificial tears and why I would recommend certain artificial tears over other ones,
you can check out my video about the science behind artificial tears ingredients.
Any time you don’t have 10 minutes to watch videos, you can watch short fun videos about
eye care tips on Instagram @draudreytai.
Number two: clear eyes natural tears eyedrops by Prestige Consumer Healthcare
There are two reasons that I do not recommend using clear eyes natural tears for treating
dry eyes.
The first is that this eye drop also uses benzalkonium chloride or BAK as its preservative.
And there is no preservative free version of this eye drop.
The second reason is that this eye drop contains polyvinyl alcohol or PVA, which is a demulcent
that lowers the viscosity or thickness of the eye drop.
PVA is found in many older types of artificial tear eyedrops.
There are more effective newer compounds that are available as a demulcent in eyedrops,
such as propylene glycol and polyethylene glycol, which are used in some newer artificial
tear eyedrops.
You can find links to some examples of over-the-counter eyedrops for treating dry eyes that contain
those newer demulcents in the description below.
I hope you have found this video helpful so far, and if so, please consider hitting the
like button and subscribing to my channel.
it would really help me to bring you more videos about eye health and eye surgery.
Number 3: visine dry eye relief, Visine red eye hydrating comfort, and Visine Red eye
total comfort by Johnson and Johnson Visine red eye hydrating comfort and Visine
Red eye total comfort contain tetrahydrozoline to reduce eye redness.
Tetrahydrozoline is a chemical that temporarily constricts the blood vessels on the eye surface
to reduce the appearance of eye redness.
Frequent and long term use of tetrahydrozoline can cause rebound dilation of the blood vessels
on the eye surface when the eye drop is discontinued.
This means, the eye will appear red if the eye drop is discontinued.
Now unlike Visine red eye total comfort, some other Visine eye drops, like Visine dry eye
relief, do not contain tetrahydrozoline.
However, all three Visine eyedrops I mentioned use BAK as their preservative.
And as always, I recommend avoiding long term use of any over the counter eyedrops that
contain BAK, due to its toxicity to the surface of the eye.
If you really would like to choose an eye drop from the Visine family to treat dry eyes,
you would be better off choosing Visine dry relief tired eye lubricant eye drops or Visine
Dry eye relief All day comfort, as the preservative used in those two drops is polyquad, which
is a less toxic than BAK.
Thank you for staying with me this far, as promised, I'll mention one more over-the-counter
eyedrop that I do not recommend for treating dry eyes.
Rohto cooling eyedrops Digi eye.
It is less well-known than the other over-the-counter eyedrops that I have reviewed in this video,
however I decided to bring your attention to this drop because of its eye catching package,
which was the reason I noticed it on the pharmacy shelf.
Digi eye contains both tetrahydrozoline and BAK, which as we already talked about can
be toxic to your eyes.
Let me know in the comments below which of the eyedrops I mentioned in this video surprised
you the most, if you have been using any of those eyedrops, would you consider switching
after watching this video?
You can also find links to some of the over the counter eye drops I do recommend for dry
eyes in the description below.
I hope you find this video helpful, if you have learned anything new, please don’t
forget to hit the Like button, and subscribe to my channel, because if you click that subscribe
button it will help give me the opportunity to continue to bring free videos about eye
health and eye surgery to the world.
You can also follow me on, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn @draudreytai to learn more about
my practice.
I look forward to connecting with you there.
Thank you again for watching and I will see you in my next video.