You've seen the commercials for red, itchy, watery, dry, uncomfortable eyes.  Adding eye drops to them will help soothe your symptoms temporarily.  How they get that way is the root of the problem.  Eye infections, allergies, dry eyes, and eye disease are many the culprit of these symptoms. You may be prescribed eye drops from your eye care professional.  Maybe you need a wetting solution from eye strain and not blinking enough.  Learning to use them properly will help to alleviate the problems.  In any case, the sooner you can relieve your eyes the better.

See more information about this topic and a step-by-step animation at our eye care professionals resource All About Vision https://bit.ly/2C9IKSI

Here Are Helpful Tips To Putting In Eye Drops

1. Wash your hands with soap and water; then dry them with a clean towel.
2. If you are wearing contact lenses, remove them. The only exception is if you are using eye drops that are specifically formulated to remoisten your contacts or if your doctor advised you to use the drops in this manner.
3. Remove the dropper cap and look closely at the tip to make sure it's not cracked or otherwise damaged. Do not touch the tip.
4. Either lie down or tilt your head back and look up at the ceiling. Concentrate on a point on the ceiling, keeping your eye wide open.
5. Place one or two fingers on your face about an inch below your eye; gently pull down to create a pocket between your lower eyelid and your eyeball.
6. Use your other hand to hold the eye drop bottle, pointing the tip downward. Resting your hand on your forehead may help steady it.
7. Hold the bottle close to your eye (about an inch away). Be careful not to let the dropper touch your eye or eyelashes since this can introduce bacteria and other organisms into the eye drops in the bottle.
8. Squeeze lightly to instill one drop inside your lower lid.
9. Remove your hands from your face, gently close your eyes and tilt your head down for a few seconds. Try not to blink, as this can force some of the drops out of your eye before it has had a chance to be absorbed.  Knowing how to apply eye drops properly will save you time, aggravation and, especially in the case of prescription drops, quite a bit of money.
10. To keep as much of the drop on your eye as possible, press lightly on the inner corner of your eyelid, next to your nose. A small duct that drains tears away from your eye and into your nose is located here. By pressing at this point, you close down the opening of this drainage duct, allowing the eye drop to remain on the surface of your eye longer.
11. This technique also minimizes the funny taste you may get in your mouth after applying certain eye drops.
12. Use a clean tissue to absorb and wipe away any drops that spill out of your eye and onto your eyelids and face.
13. If you are using eye drops on both eyes, repeat this procedure for the second eye.
14. Replace the cap of the bottle and screw it on securely. Never wipe the dropper tip with anything, as this may contaminate the drops.
15. Wash your hands to clean away any stray eye drops.

See more information about this topic at our eye care professionals resource All About Vision https://bit.ly/2C9IKSI