How do glaucoma drops work




















Some people with glaucoma stop using their eye drops after a while. They prevent your vision from getting worse. There are many medicines available to treat glaucoma. Before you start taking glaucoma medicines, tell your doctor about other medicines, supplements, or vitamins you take.

Eye drops for glaucoma may affect how those other medicines work. Some types of eye drops work by helping fluid drain from your eye, which lowers eye pressure. Examples include:. Other types of eye drops work by lowering the amount of fluid your eye makes.

If you notice any side effects, talk to your doctor. Possible side effects of prostaglandin analogs include: red , stinging or painful eyes after using drops. Previous What Is Glaucoma? Popular Glaucoma Answers Are there activities that make glaucoma worse? How might antihistamines affect my glaucoma? Will my eye pressure go higher than it was before treatment if I stop taking my glaucoma medication? Is ibuprofen safe to use for pain relief if you are a glaucoma patient? Can I use glaucoma treatment eyedrops after my eyes are dilated?

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Also of Interest. View the video transcript. Patients often worry about not getting enough of the eye drop into the eye because they feel some of the eye drop running down their face. As discussed in the "Cold and Wet" tip below, a single drop is more than enough for the eye to handle. This is a good time to relax and take a moment to refresh yourself during your day. An added bonus is that this maneuver prevents the medication from making its way into the nose, throat, and the rest of the body, so that any eye drops that could have side effects on your body as a whole are minimized.

Therefore, the ideal way to instill your eye drops is to combine both methods: close your eyes and press on the inside corners for 2 minutes after a drop is instilled. Patients often want to know how long they should wait between taking different eye drops and what the ideal timing is.

Since the first eye drop can wash away the second eye drop if instilled in the eye too quickly, it is recommended to wait 5 minutes between instilling different types of eye drops or at least 3 minutes if you are in a rush. If you have two or more types of eye drops to put in at the same time, the order in which you instill them does not matter, unless you are using an ointment.

An ointment should go in at the very end, after you have instilled all of your eye drops. In terms of timing, for a drop that is taken once a day, there are some medications that are better taken in the morning and others that are better taken in the evening.

For example, one class of medications, the prostaglandin analogues including latanoprost, bimatoprost, and travoprost should be instilled at bedtime once a day. For drops that are required twice a day, the ideal dosing regimen is every 12 hours, and for drops that are dosed three times a day, the ideal dosing regimen is every 8 hours. However, sometimes that is not practical, and wiggle room of an hour or two early or late should be fine. The most important thing is to make sure you instill the drops the correct number of times each day.

Many patients have difficulty remembering to take their eye drops because they forget, the day just gets away from them, or because they are already taking so many other medications that their glaucoma drops fall by the wayside.

One effective way to ensure that you take your eye drops is to use them when you are doing another daily activity. For example, if you have a drop that needs to be used twice a day, you could instill it before or after brushing your teeth, or before you eat breakfast and dinner. A third way is to keep a chart, and check off a box each time you use your eye drop.

Patients often say they are unsure if enough of the eye drop entered the eye, because they mostly feel the eye drop on their cheeks. While every eye drop is different in its exact size, all bottles are designed in a way such that the eye drop contains much more medicine than your eyeball can even handle.

This means that you do not have to worry if excess medication drips down your cheek, and you can be assured that enough has reached your eye.

This also means that you should not purposely instill 2 or more drops in an attempt to get more into your eye, as you will be wasting the medication. Another trick is to store your eye drops in the refrigerator.



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