Burning and Irritation in both eyes

[bryan9182]

Up until about a month ago I was a long term user of Clear Eyes and Opcon-A to get rid of redness in my eyes. I initially started using the drops to treat irritation I recieved from a camp fire at a friend of mines party a couple years ago. I was by the fire for a little while, went inside to use the bathroom and noticed my eyes were very bloodshot so I dropped in some clear eyes and went back out. This repeated about 4-5 more times that night. Ever since then I became dependent on these drops to get rid of the redness in my eyes. Since I used these drops for a couple years my eyes now feel very dry and they burn. They also still look fairly irritated. They do not look as bad as they did a couple weeks ago, but the redness is still noticable and it becomes worse when my eyes feel dry and burn. My eyes often burn and I have the sensation you get when you hold your eyes open without blinking for a while almost all the time.


Like I said, I stopped using the redness relievers about a month ago but my eyes are still red and burning. I've tried multiple lubricant eye drops (systane, optive, refresh, genteal) and they all have very minimal relief. I put systane in my fridge to cool my eyes from the burning, but that only reliefs me for 5-10 minutes. Is it possible that the chronic use of these drops completely messed up my eyes tear production causing the redness and burning sensation? What are some fixes for this if lubricant eye drops do not work?

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi there and welcome. Sorry to hear about your situation.

First, if you haven't already, please go see an optometrist or ophthalmologist for a full dry eye workup. Unfortunately, it is entirely possible to have long-term damage from the preservatives in vasoconstrictors, but there's no reason to believe that's happened to you at this stage. Getting some test results will be a step in the right direction and help determine what to do next.

In terms of things you can do on your own, I would encourage you to try NutraTear, or perhaps Dwelle, from our dry eye shop as these are known for (among other things) being longer-lasting than most. Warm compresses may be helpful (especially if you have a rapid tear break-up time) and cold compresses can also be soothing and reduce burning and redness. If you get to a doctor, they may recommend a course of steroid stops and/or Restasis.

Here are some links you may want to check out to get more background information and ideas for moving forward. Don't worry, in all likelihood you can get this under contorol, but you will need to be patient and it's likely you'll need more than just eyedrops.

[bryan9182]

The fact that I could have done long term damage scares me a bit. Although I am young (only 19 years old) and I am healthy so hopefully I can get through this without looking like this for the rest of my life.

Luckily there is a eye exam place about a mile from where I go to school so I think im going to stop by there soon and get an exam. Do you think it is a good idea to keep using Systane every day or do you think I should stop using drops completely in order to see if my eyes can heal that way?

[Rebecca Petris]

The fact that I could have done long term damage scares me a bit. Although I am young (only 19 years old) and I am healthy so hopefully I can get through this without looking like this for the rest of my life.

Luckily there is a eye exam place about a mile from where I go to school so I think im going to stop by there soon and get an exam. Do you think it is a good idea to keep using Systane every day or do you think I should stop using drops completely in order to see if my eyes can heal that way?

I'd keep using drops (are you using the preservative-free ones? if not switch to those) at least a couple times a day. I'm sorry - I probably shouldn't have mentioned that long term damage can happen - I'd file it in the "possible but very unlikely" folder for now. As a young man you're in a category with just about the healthiest possible tear system naturally (as opposed to women & older folks) so your prognosis is probably excellent. A good doctor can help confirm this.

[bryan9182]

The drops I am using are Systane in the bottle. They are not in little individual vials so theyre most likely not preservative free. I'll pick some of those up at CVS later on tonight.

I saw an optometrist for this same situation about a year ago and he gave me three things. The first thing he had me try was Tobradex. He said it would clear up the redness for me, but it did nothing. Second he tried Patanol which is for allergies I beleive. Once again, it didnt do much of anything. Then he finally introduced me to lubricant drops and told me to see a specialist (which I never did). I have been doing some research and have come across Lotemax. Does this sound like something that would be useful in my recovery? It says its used to treat inflammation of the eye. I deffinatly also believe I have developed a dryness problem from the chronic use of the vaso's as well though so who knows what will happen.

[Rebecca Petris]

Unfortunately sometimes there can be a tendency even by doctors to just throw stuff semi-randomly at problems like this.

Lotemax is exactly what a lot of doctors would be likely to prescribe. It's a nice low-risk steroid drop.

[bryan9182]

Alright well thank you for all your help


I am deffinately going to be seeing an optometrist soon to see if he can help me out. I think I will ask him out about Lotemax and see what he says. Do you suggest I ask him about anything else?