Eye drops can not shine your eyes Whether it is really busy at work, or pretend to be busy at work, the modern white-collar workers almost all of the working time are staring at the computer. A day down, eyes tired to open not to mention, but also often dry to make people uncomfortable. How to do it? Simply prepare a bottle of eye drops to prevent visual fatigue next to the computer! Eyes tired, dry and uncomfortable, point two drops. Wait! This eye drops just a moment to moisturize your eyes, but can not alleviate visual fatigue, if long-term use, the preservatives inside may also make dry eye to find you. Dry eye and tears The so-called visual fatigue, is that many people work for a period of time will obviously feel dry eyes, some people will even feel a burning sensation, foreign body sensation. These are typical symptoms of dry eye. The so-called dry eye syndrome is the lack of tears. Tears are not produced only when you want to cry. Our lacrimal glands make tears all the time, just in smaller amounts that go unnoticed by us. When we blink, our eyelids cause tears to form a liquid film on the surface of our eyes – the tear film – so that the surface of our eyes remains moist. Tear film is not a simple liquid film, it is like a sandwich with 3 layers, the most surface layer is the lipid layer, simply a layer of oil that can prevent the evaporation of tears; the middle layer is isotonic saline, which contains a variety of cytokines; the innermost layer is the mucin layer, sticky so that the tear film can resist gravity to adhere to the surface of the eye. But if you keep your eyes open, this layer of tear film can not last long will break, and once the tear film rupture, the surface of the eye to lose the protection of the liquid membrane, directly exposed to the air, a variety of discomfort comes. Under normal circumstances, the eyes will automatically blink when they are uncomfortable, this is because every time we blink, a new layer of tear film will be formed. However, if you’re concentrating on solving a work problem or digging in a hole on the Internet, the number of times you blink will decrease. Over a long period of time, your eyes naturally become dry and irritated. This is called evaporative dry eye syndrome, is an epidemic in the office. Of course, there are also dry eyes caused by other systemic or ocular diseases, which are not discussed in this article. Artificial tears to relieve dry eye dry eye treatment method has a variety of other diseases caused by, of course, to treat the cause of the disease; evaporation caused by the strong can be relieved through rest, blinking, increase air humidity; if it can not be relieved, then the most direct method is to supplement the tears – artificial tears, that is, we most often come into contact with the Eye drops. Artificial tears will simulate the composition and structure of tears as much as possible. Their main ingredient is water, or a humectant (so that the water stays in the eye as long as possible). Commonly used humectants include chondroitin sulfate, methylcellulose, sodium hyaluronate (sodium vitrate, hyaluronic acid), polyethylene glycol, and many more. They are polymer materials that can adsorb water and have a certain viscosity and pseudoplasticity (can be molded into three-dimensional shapes, and can even support and squeeze other objects, but this state can only be maintained for a while), and can be distributed as a film on the surface of the eye. Some artificial tears, in order to mimic the composition of tears, will also add components similar to oil, such as phospholipid derivatives (Editor’s note: After the correction of Harmony Bus, the author consulted the information and changed glycerol to phospholipid derivatives. Thanks!) . Such artificial tears are closer to real tears, and when dropped into the eye, they can replenish the lipid content on the surface of the tear film and enhance the stability of the tear film. Artificial tears should be selected as close as possible to the composition of tears, other eye drops are not suitable for artificial tears, such as antibiotic eye drops, although the composition of the water inside can temporarily moisturize the eyes, but can not be maintained, but also in the eye surface of the misuse of antibiotics to give their own increased risk. Another some contain vasoconstrictor drugs, point into the eye, the original congestion of the eye surface blood vessels quickly contract, congestion seems to reduce. This makes sense for eye allergies and the like, but for dry eye or visual fatigue, vasoconstriction doesn’t solve the problem, it’s just a short-term stabilizing measure. Preservatives in eye drops Unless they are single-use eye drops, most 5 ml or 10 ml bottles contain preservatives. The introduction of preservatives allows us to buy relatively cheap eye drops. But even with preservatives, the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China still stipulates that eye drops should not be used for more than 4 weeks after opening. Therefore, even if you do not use up the eye drops 1 month after opening the bottle, please throw it away. While the preservatives in eye drops do not cause any problems when used for a short period of time, there are various adverse effects when used for a long period of time. One of them is the toxic effect on the cells on the surface of the conjunctiva and cornea. Remember the tear film “sandwich” mentioned earlier. The inner layer of mucin is secreted by the cells on the surface of the conjunctiva, and the long-term use of preservative-containing eye drops may damage the “producers” of this important component of the film and aggravate dry eye. For dry eye patients who need to use artificial tears for a long period of time, doctors recommend disposable eye drops packaged in a single bottle, as these are preservative-free, but relatively expensive. However, there are exceptions, through the careful design of the eye drops bottle is possible to isolate the drops and air, each time to take only one drop, without affecting the remaining, which can also be done without preservatives. For example, patent number US20040200860A1 describes a liquid-flow dispensing system, which, when viewed in the picture, resembles the structure of a ballpoint pen or an automatic pencil. Dispensing eye drops is also a technical task With the right eye drops, how to dispense them into the eye is also a technical task. Whether you’re dispensing for yourself or someone else, the first thing you should do is wash your hands. Another important point is not to let the spout of the bottle touch your eyes, otherwise it will contaminate the eye drops. If you are giving someone else eye drops, the correct method is, the other person tilts his head, with a cotton swab to press the other person’s lower eyelid, and then let him look up, then the gap between the lower eyelid and the eyeball will be exposed, the other hand to take the bottle of eye drops, elevated, aiming, gently press a little bit, pointing in a drop can be more eyes can not be put in the eye, and then let him gently press the inner corners of his eyes, close the tear ducts, so that the eye medicine in the eye Stay in the eye for a while longer. Lacrimal gland and tear “traffic path” anatomical schematic diagram If you are pointing by yourself, it is also similar action, press the lower eyelid, look upward, but you can look at the upper part of the eye first, put the eye bottle in place and then look upward, but it is still easy to waste a few drops of eye drops to point by yourself. If you want to order two or more eye drops, you should space them at least 5-10 minutes apart, so that one doesn’t wash out the other. The bottle of eye drops can not be mixed, never put something else into the bottle of eye drops, the location of the eye drops can not be placed in other similar drops, such as pointing the nose, ears, and even what the foot water, wind oil essence and so on are separated to put, go back and check the old man at home in the medicine chest, often have the foot water, wind oil essence mistakenly point into the eyes of this kind of thing happened. Warm tips: If you use some kind of over-the-counter (OverTheCounter, OTC) eye drops or before the doctor has been prescribed to use eye drops after feeling unwell again when you seek medical attention, please be sure to record the name of the eye drops, if it is an elderly person, please take an empty bottle of eye drops. Eye drops should only be used when needed. There is no such thing as an eye drop that you can just use, and most importantly, there is no such thing as a healthcare eye drop. Visual fatigue can be caused by many things, not the least of which is work. Drugs and other things are like coffee, they are able to fight it temporarily, the real effective treatment is still rest. Therefore, the way to cure visual fatigue is to slap the boss’s desk and yell “I quit!” Otherwise, it’s an incurable disease until you retire, and it will always come back.