Before and after ICL surgery, eye drops are necessary to prevent infection and inhibit inflammation.
This time, we will talk about the precautions for eye drops.
【How to use eye drops】
The correct way of using eye drops.
- ① Always wash your hands carefully with soap and running water.
When putting in eye drops, your hands may touch your eyes or dropper tip. Because there are a variety of bacteria on your hands, wash your hands before putting in eye drops to avoid these bacteria contaminating your eyes and eye drops. - ② Use one hand to pull your lower eyelid down to create a pocket and put one drop (according to the instructions if the doctor prescribed ) in the pocket without touching your eye or eyelash with the bottle tip.
- Please note that tears could flow back into the bottle if the bottle tip touches your eyes, which may pollute the eye drops.
- If it is difficult for you to put in eye drops, gently pull down the eyelid with your fist, and put the other hand on the fist to put in the eye drops.
- ③ Do not blink after putting in eye drops and close your eyes. If any drops leaked out, use a clean tissue to wipe them.
Do not blink, because eye drops with tears will be discharged from the lacrimal spot (small hole on the nasal side) to lacrimal sac (the inner corner of the eye which is close to the nose). - Leaked-out eye drops can also cause contact dermatitis, so wipe them with the clean gauze or tissue.
- ④ Keep your eyes closed for 1-5 minutes and gently press your finger against the inside lacrimal sac. Because you may touch incisions after the surgery, instead of pressing your lacrimal sac, just close your eyes.
Closing eyes and pressing the lacrimal sac after using the eye drops can reduce the systemic side effects and bring a previously therapeutic effect.
【Precautions for using more than 2 types of eye drops】
If you need to use more than 1 type of eyedrop at the same time, wait at least 5 minutes between the different kinds of eye drops.
Because the eye drop may be washed aways by the second eye drop, it is necessary for each eye drop to be separately used from another to avoid being affected. A 5-minute break is considered appropriate.
As for the order of eye drops, If the doctor has instructions, use the eye drops following the order of the doctor’s instructions. If there is no doctor’s instruction, it is better to use suspension eye drops at last because they are soluble in water and hard to be absorbed as well. In addition, eye ointment is soluble in water-base eye drops, so use it at last. It is best to use the eye drops which will gelatinize after using at last.
At least 2 types of eye drops will be prescribed after ICL surgery, so please confirm the precautions before you start eye drops.