4 Types of Eye Drops and How to Use Them Safely

2. Nighttime dry eye drops

These are thicker and usually come in a gel or ointment form to help keep your eyes hydrated overnight. The benefit is that “the drops obviously last longer, but trying to see through something thick and goopy is difficult because it makes your vision blurry for a little while,” says Vicente Diaz, M.D., a Yale Medicine eye doctor who is the chief of ophthalmology at Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. That’s why eye specialists recommend that you apply them right before you hop into bed in the evening. Though they often contain preservatives, that’s usually not an issue, since you use them only once per day, Diaz points out.

3.  Antihistamine eye drops

These drops can help relieve eye itching and redness due to allergies. “They block histamine, a chemical released by the allergy response that causes itchiness,” Erwin says.

It’s a good idea to see your eye doctor if you notice symptoms of eye allergies, Galor says. These can include itching, burning, redness, tearing, puffy eyelids and stringy eye discharge. A specialist can examine the lining of your eyes to make sure your symptoms are caused by allergies. If they are, over-the-counter antihistamine eye drops are the best solution, rather than allergy medications that you take by mouth. “An antihistamine itself can dry eyes out,” Galor explains.

One quick tip: Store your drops in the fridge, and take them out as needed. “The cold sensation will help soothe the eye,” Palazzolo says. It’s fine to use preservative-free eye drops, as well, if you also have dry eye. Palazzolo recommends that you apply one, wait five minutes, then apply the second one. This way, “one does not dilute the other,” she says.

4.  Anti-redness eye drops

These drops contain ingredients such as tetrahydrozoline that work to reduce redness by constricting blood vessels around the eye. Experts don’t recommend them other than for very occasional use. “If these are used daily and consistently, they will have the opposite effect: Blood vessels will dilate and become bigger so that the eyes become even more red,” Palazzolo says. It’s OK to use them in a very rare situation, such as an event where you need to have your eyes look more white in a photo, she says. Using them more often may be problematic: “If your eyes are red daily, it’s probably for a reason,” she says. “There might be something else going on. You want to treat the cause, not mask it.”

If you need to use something for a one-off event, Palazzolo recommends an eye drop that contains low-dose brimonidine tartrate, a drug normally used to treat glaucoma patients. “It has the side effect to make blood vessels smaller, so they do not appear as red,” she says. It’s less harsh than traditional anti-redness drops.

How to lower risk of eye infections

Regardless of which drops you choose, there are a few things you can do to ensure that you use them safely to reduce the risk of infection. Starr advises that you don’t let anything come in contact with the bottle tip. That includes your eyeball. To insert drops safely, he recommends, you tilt your head back, pull the lower eyelid down and away from the eye and “drop the drop” from a distance. “If you’re not sure if the drop got into the eye, it’s generally safe to try again,” he says. If you think your bottle tip has been contaminated, he says you should either throw it away or clean the tip with alcohol and let it air-dry before reusing.

If you develop eye discharge, redness or pain, see your eye doctor right away, since these could all indicate infection that may require other treatments, such as antibiotic eye drops.