Happy Wednesday!
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: "I have pink eye, so I wanted to use over-the-counter eye drops but it seems they aren't available anywhere. Can I use the same brand of ear drops? I heard you can use ear drops in the eye."
Concise Conclusion: Unfortunately, it's the other way around! Ear drops are not suitable for the eye, but you can use eye drops in the ear. In this case, the ear drops also have an extra ingredient for ear pain, which makes it even more inappropriate for use in the eye.
Quick Wrap-up: The reason for this is because the formulation for otic drops are typically more acidic and may have lower standards for sterility compared to eye drops given that the eyes are more sensitive. In Ontario, this is also a perfect time to prescribe for a minor ailment if within your scope!
We hope you have found this useful, and please reply to this email with any feedback or topic suggestions you can; it will be the key to making this newsletter the best it can be.
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