Medicated Eye Drops

Introduction

1. Whether your eyes are constantly dry, or if you are suffering from a disease or disorder of the eye, eye drops can be an important part of your medicine cabinet. Eye drops can be used to moisten, lubricate or medicate the eye. They can also be found in four main forms: prescription, nonprescription, anesthetic and dilating.

Prescription

2. Prescription eye drops are used under a doctor's care to treat eye-related medical conditions. Most commonly these eye drops contain corticosteroids or infection fighting medications. Corticosteroid eye drops act specifically to decrease inflammation and irritation of the eye. Eye drops with infection fighting medications differ widely in active ingredients, but all focus on treating infection such as pink eye.

Nonprescription

3. Nonprescription eye drops are easily purchased over the counter at most drug and convenience stores. The most common forms of these eye drops are artificial tears and decongestant drops. Artificial tears are made from non-medicated saline solution and work by relubricating the eye. Decongestant drops have small amounts of medicine in them with active ingredients that help constrict the blood vessels of the eye. This makes red eyes due to allergies look cosmetically whiter.

Anesthetic

4. Anesthetic eye drops are specially medicated eye drops used by doctors that contain pain medications. The pain medication is directly absorbed by the mucous membrane on the surface of the eye and help numb any pain that would otherwise be experienced during a medical procedure on the eye.

Dilating

5. Dilating eye drops are used by optometrists and medical doctors to dilate the eyes during an examination. This allows the professional to do a thorough examination of the inside of the eye. They work either by stimulating the dilator iris muscle to open up, or preventing the sphincter iris muscle from closing.