Dry Eyes

[Dane]

Sometimes my eye get dry. I am looking for suggestions for which eye drops to use to moisten my eyes. I don't wear contacts and don't care about redness. Any thoughts.

 

[tennisplayer1981]

Visine Tears Dry Eye Relief 0.5oz

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

... and don't care about redness. Any thoughts.

Best to stay away from eye drops with redness relievers, anyway. At best, redness relievers, such as naphazoline or tetrahydrozoline, only provide a cosmetic fix while prolonged use could be detrimental to eye health.

For dry eyes look for artificial tears eye drops. Two of the better lubricants for this type of eyedrops are Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose (HPMC) or Carboxyl Methylcellulose (CMC). I believe that the lubricant, Hypromellose, used in Visine Tears and other products is the same thing as HPMC. Safeway's Artificial Tears is a reasonably priced version of this.

Note that some of the preservatives , especially Benzalkonium Chloride, used in many eyedrop formulae, may cause some irritation in many users. If you are sensitive to these preservatives then it might be best to look for eyedrops that are preservative-free or find a product that uses some other type of preservative.

Lot of great info in the link below. Be sure to read what they say about preservatives.

agingeye.net/dryeyes/dryeyesdrugtreatment.php

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Take a look here for Refresh and Optive products:
Allergan.com/products/eye_care

Info on various Visine eydrop products:
brands2liveby.com/brand.aspx?id=269

Quite often you can find a cheaper house brand version of some of these products at supermarkets and drugstore chains.


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[Dane]

Thanks for all the useful informations.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I tend to go thru eye drops rather quickly -- often use them several times a day. Since eye drops with my preferred lubricants, HPMC and CMC, are usually a bit pricey, I'll sometimes by a product with a cheaper lubricant. I'll use the cheaper product one time during the day and use the pricier once once or twice in the same day.

 

[Fred132]

Allergan "Refresh Tears" work great for me. (Mild to moderate dry eyes).