October Newsletter

In This Issue: October 2022

• Scared of Eye Drops? Tips to Face the Fear
• Is Your Annual Medicare Deductible Paid for This Year?
• Eye Care Tip of the Month: Avoid Novelty Contacts

Scared of Eye Drops? Tips to Face the Fear

Medicated eye drops are often prescribed to manage or treat conditions such as dry eye, glaucoma, eye infections and many other eye diseases. Eye drops are also a common post-surgery protocol. If you skip doses because using eye drops makes you anxious, you may be putting your vision at risk. Additionally, if the proper amount of medication isn’t making it into your eyes, you may not be getting the full benefit of the drops.

Here are some tips to help make this process a little easier:

1. Get comfortable. Try laying down and closing your eyes for a minute or two to relax.
2. Squeeze the drop. Don’t touch the bottle to your eye during this step.
   • If you can keep your eyes open while applying drops, focus your attention on a specific point as you pull your lower eyelid down a bit to catch the drop in the pocket of your eye.
   • You can also keep your eye closed. Squeeze a drop into the corner of your eye, near your nose.
3. Get help. If you can’t bring yourself to do the step above, ask a friend or family member to squeeze the drop for you.
4. Promote absorption of the drop. There are two ways to do this, depending on how you completed step 2.
   1. If you kept your eyes open during application, close your eyes for a minute or two and apply gentle pressure to the corner of your eye.
   2. If you kept your eye closed, open your eye. Blink several times to get the medication into your eye.
5. Repeat. If you require more than one drop of medication or medication in both eyes, repeat steps 1-4.
   Be sure to wash your hands before and after you apply eye drops. Always remove your contact lenses before applying eye drops.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to applying eye drops. If you need help with this process, please contact our office at (702) 996-5159 to schedule an eye exam.

Is Your Annual Medicare Deductible Paid for This Year?

Come see us before your Medicare deductible starts over for 2023. We still have appointments left for the remainder of 2022!

Eye Care Tip of the Month: Avoid Novelty Contacts

October is Halloween Safety Month in the world of ophthalmology. It is very important to avoid wearing novelty contact lenses to complete your Halloween costume – or any time of year for that matter. Cosmetic contact lenses sold online, in Halloween shops, gas stations, etc., are illegal for a reason: they can cause a host of serious eye problems including corneal scarring, corneal ulcers, infection and more. There are even reports of people going blind after wearing these types of lenses for just a few hours. The only safe way to wear colored contact lenses is by getting a prescription from your eye doctor for lenses that will perfectly fit your eyes. Please don’t risk your eyesight just to win a costume contest.