Antibiotic Eye Drops – Information And Application

Have you been prescribed with antibiotic eye drops to help clear up an infection such as conjunctivitis?  If you have then it is important that you follow the instructions that your doctor or other health professional has given to you.  If you don’t then the chances of the infection reoccurring is greatly enhanced.

So how should you use the eye drops that your doctor or other health professional has prescribed for you?

The first thing to do is actually wash your hands before anything. This will help to prevent not only the dropper from becoming contaminated but also your eyes once more.

After washing your hands you need to shake up the bottle well that contains the antibiotic eye drop mixture.  This will help to ensure that all the relevant properties are then collected into the dropper to treat the eye or eyes that are infected.

Next you need to fill the dropper with some of the antibiotic eye drops this is simply done but squeezing the rubber top of the dropper. Once you have a sufficient of the antibiotic liquid in the dropper now you need to administer it in to the infected eye.  When you are putting the drops in your eye make sure that the dropper does not come into come with them.  Otherwise this will result in the end becoming contaminated and there will be a risk of the infection happening once more.

The best way of administering eye drops for an infection is to tilt your head back and make sure that you are gazing upwards.  Then very carefully with your right or left hand depending which isn’t holding the dropper you pull the lower eyelid down and this creates a pouch.  Now very quickly and gently press the end of the dropper to put the required number of drops into the eye.

After you have put in the drops you should close the eye for around 1 or 2 minutes to allow the antibiotic eye drops to cover the whole eye.  Also whilst the eye is closed place a finger at the corner of the eye close to the nose and gently apply pressure.  By doing this you are actually stopping the medication your doctor has prescribed from being able to drain away.  Also although you may feel the urge to you shouldn’t blink or rub your eye following the medication being applied.

Initially you may find that you will feel a stinging sensation following the application of the drops to your eye but this should only last a minute or so.  However, if this sensation continues for any length of time or it becomes worse immediately seek your doctors advice.  Also it is advisable to stop using the medication immediately if you don’t then the antibiotic eye drops could end up causing more damage to your eye.

It is also best that you don’t do anything where clear vision is required after applying antibiotic eye drops.  As well as causing a slight stinging sensation when applied these types of drops can leave you with slightly blurred vision.