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PRESERVED EYE DROPS?

Is preservative-free always best?

 

Click here for previous newsletters.


1. Counselling Conundrum: a real question from a patient

2. Concise Conclusion: a straight-forward patient-friendly answer 

3. Quick Wrap-up 

 

Clearly, there are nuances that may not be captured in this format. The goal here is to provide you with helpful counselling tips which often draw from multiple sources or those which are not commonly accessed by busy healthcare providers serving the community.


Counselling Conundrum: "Why is there a preservative-free version of my lubricating eye drops? Are preservatives bad for my eyes?"

 

Concise Conclusion: Preservatives are in eye drops in order to keep your eye drop sterile, which in turn prevents infections (similar to food). However, these can irritate your eyes, especially if you're using them more than four times a day. If you aren't having any stinging or dryness currently, I would not change anything, but if these things occur you can consider switching to a preservative-free version.

 

Quick Wrap-up: Benzalkonium chloride is the most common culprit preservative in lubricating eye drops. To remove the need for preservatives, manufacturers typically make use of a special filtered bottle or single-use packaging to keep it sterile. Alternatives include ointments (which do not require preservatives) or less harsh preservatives (e.g. Purite, GenAqua, Polyquad, etc).

 

 

Dive Deeper

 

We hope you have found this useful. A reply to this email with any feedback or topic suggestion you may have would be greatly appreciated. Your input will be the key to making this newsletter the best it can be.

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