eye wash?

[Mika]

hi...i have seen quite a lots of products of Eye Wash currently being sold in my country and i wonder if this eye wash beneficial for dry eye patien? the box says that it is good to wash the eyes and good for people working in hard condition and those having red eyes...
is Eye Wash product the same as Saline product?...
can i buy this eye wash for dry eye?...and won't it has secondary effect later on...?

[Guest]

Eye washes also seem to be multiplying on the shelves of my local supermarket right next to the contact lens solutions and increasing number of dry eye drops - There must be more of us out there if this is the case.

I bought an eye wash to try it but decided against it once i saw the preservative was BAK/BAC, put me off straight away. I showed my DR also, he was concerned about the list of things it contained and suggested that I just use a non preserved sterile saline solution.

I refrigerate the saline (pop it in the freezer for 10 minutes or so) and use the little eye cup that came with the eye wash (I threw the eye wash solution away).

I don't have any clinicial findings to base my next comment on and nor am I a DR but I would have through that an eye wash with normal chilled saline solution should temporarily refresh the eyes without a significant reboud effect as you are not using vasoconstrictors or steroids.

Rebecca might have some more information to prove/disprove this theory.

Cheers
Ian

[Lucy]

One more thing, the saline is a million times cheaper than the "eye wash" products. Seems Ian has nailed it on the head with his post!

[Guest]

I am using Steripods - they are 20ml single use non-preserved saline solution.

For those of us in the UK, we can get them on prescription (just found that out thanks to SusieD), I persuaded my DR to prescribe 60 of them as I have started to do a rinse 2 X daily (first up of a morning) and just after work when my eyes need a lift.

I tried to find non preserved saline solution but there didn't seem to be a lot of options. So I went for these instead.

The packaging should be updated to read "Best served chilled".

Ian

[Rebecca Petris]

I have no information per se to add to this, except to repeat that (a) I'm a big fan of unpreserved saline and (b) stay away from eyewashes with BAK.

The manufacturer I use for the drops had an excess of a generic eyewash that I was considering taking off their hands (it was in a handy 2 oz size and would have been nice and cheap) - then of course I found it had BAK in it. No thanks.

In the US, Unisol is the best we can get in this category IMHO - and yes it's nice & cheap, relatively anyway, about $7 for 3 bottles. Sometimes they have boxes of 4 bottles.

[Mika]

searching for saline in pharmacies, they told me dat "is it saline for contact lens"??.....and i just didn't kno ....so is it saline for contact lens???.....is it good for the eye this saline for contact lense?
doesn't it contain BAK??
and with continuous usage, won't the eye become ..damaged?

u mentioned "unpreserve" saline.....hm so, saline has preserve saline as well???...wat is the difference from them?

[Guest]

Mikastef

I guess it is difficult because we are so multicultural on this site that things available in one country are not available in another.

I used unpreserved saline as that is how it is packaged in the UK they are called Steripods and contain about 25ml of non preserved saline (open the pod, use it, dispose of what's left).

I would imagine that all saline is marketed for contact lens wear, although the one I use is designed specifically for eyes and burns. I remember when I was lucky enough to wear contact lenses (before my laser surgery) that I used to buy a non preserved saline solution that once opened had to be used within about 28 days as there is little risk that it can become contaminated as there is no contact with the body.

If contact lens saline is all you have at your disposal, in my opinion so long as it didn't contain BAK you are pretty safe.

You don't want a contact lens cleaning or soaking solution just "normal saline", and I am pretty sure you are on the right track.

Like the conditon that we all suffer from presents in different ways, so too are the products that we use to treat it.

I wish you well

Ian.

[Mika]

thx ian...
im gonna b a real pain in the a*ss because there another question and problem ...
pfff becoz i went to many (many) pharmacy (AGAIN!!!!) to ask4 saline ..and wen they look at me queerly, not knowing wat the heck this is, i said it is for contact lense, they check in their supply...and they just show me contact lens cleaner. the most common one is:
OPTI-FREE Express...from alcon...hm i wonder if this is good for cleaning the eye..a substitue for saline?it is a muti purpose disinfecting solution, its says clean, rinses, disinfect rewet, removes protein daily, beacktericidal, etcc etcc...for all soft contact lenses... and its says it can be use for rewetting the eye... it does NOT contain BAK...just acqueous solution a lot of ingredien i don't even kno wat they are and it contain tetronic 1304 as a cleaning agen and Polyquad...........
pfff im so disapointed...bcoz in mauritius wer i live, we dont get many pharmacetical things.....just old things....after all, not many people have dryeye here, so all these treatment aren't profitable for pharmacies to import....
the only thing available here is FEW artificial tears, only 1 eyegel(lacrinorm-having BAK), and only one kind of eye oinment!!!pfff ....i have indeed search a lot of pharmaciess....

btw: i can't order online due to im still a student(not working) and my parents are retired...:S

so i fink, if i cant have saline,..just gonna stick to compress to "clean" my eye lid to preven negative effect of ointment etc..

[Guest]

In my honest opinion, I would NOT use the Opti-free express as a substitute, I think it would irritate as it is designed to be a cleaning and contact lens soaking solution and not designed to go IN the eye.

I find it hard to believe that a pharmacy can't get some form of saline (I'm not questioning you or your attempts), you could ask for Sodium Chloride 0.9% (that what my product says it is).

Normal Saline is quite common and been around for years (I used to buy it 16 years ago when I started wearing contact lenses) If I am not mistaken I believe that a normal saline solution is quite commonly used in hospitals - I may be way off the mark with this one because I am not a DR.

Normal saline solution has loads of medical applications - contact lenses being just one of them.

If you send me an email with your address I will pop a couple of Steripods in the post to you, so at least you can try it. Each Steripod contains 20ml of normal saline, maybe you could take an empty one to the pharmacy so they can see the ingredient (Sodium Chloride 0.9%) for themselves.

Cheers

Ian

[SusieD]

I too cant understand why they cant get it - have you actually asked them to order it for you?

Thing is, normal saline (sodium chloride) has a wide range of uses - its not like its a speciality product only for eyes. Especially the irrigating solutions (what myself and Ian use) these are used for cleaning wounds and all sorts of things.

[Mika]

so......thx to Ian, i have printed the reference of saline u gave me from wikepedia, and i showed them to the same pharmacist who said they don't have it earlier....
now they decided they were more intelligent being, and i finally got my saline ....
but..i got it in bottle of 240ml......... but where's the eye cup???? how can i rinse my eye without eye cup????

also, to increase my suppliers number, i have check in another pharmacy(with the printed copy) and they replied me they don't have saline bottle form but have small doses of saline for sales.....eu...in small tiny bottle(i don't kno how they name it this tiny bottle...) ....they even stated that saline as a Big bottle is not good as it will not be Sterile, once the Big bottle has been opened and tho putting it in the refrigerator, its sterility will be compromised once 24 hours has elapse.......
so is my BIG bottle that i have bought.....is BIG loss for me?? so i must not have bought a big bottle....rather a tiny one in dozen...?? wat do u use u?

also, for safety, i am quoting wat the bottle says, to kno whether it is good to rinse the eye.....
LENS PLUS PURITE Saline Solution is a sterile, buffered, isotonic solution containing boric acid and sodium chloride.
Stabilised oxychloro complex(Purite) equiavalent to 0.005% ,/v stabilised chlorine dioxide.....

so is it good this bottle ??

[Guest]

Mikatef

Congratulations that you have managed to get hold of your saline, it has been quite a challenge for you.

With regards to the eye cup, I don't use one, I just pour the saline directly in my eye whilst I am in the shower and let it rinse the eye that way, from what I have gathered, most people here using saline do a similar thing (maybe not in the shower ).

I can't comment on the specifics of the saline that you purchased but my guess is that Purite is a preservative, and whilst your pharmacy is right that the sterility of the product is compromised once you open it (like all eye drops), I am guessing that once opened, it should be consumed within 4 weeks (usually it will say this on the box somewhere) - someone far more knowledgeable about these things than me may clarify this for us.

Again, it is difficult to say without knowing the specifics but my guess (and it is only a guess) is that the smaller bottles may be unpreserved and are what you are looking for. Ask the pharmacy whether they contain preservative or not. No doubt the smaller bottles will be more expensive like they are in the UK but they are far more convenient and I pretty much open one and use it completely (or throughout the day so no issues with sterility).

Cheers
Ian

[Mika]

as im a born curious.......... and having read a post of

"Stupid question? Crying"

in which i have found dat wen ur cry, tears is concentrated with salt..........well if saline is made of salt, and wen u cry, the excess salt make ur eye more horrible later on......so saline too can cause this effect?

saline=salt
crying tears=salt=horrible later on
therefore,
saline=crying tears=horrible later on...???

moreover, i don't kno if it is saline or my warm compress which is making redness be more concentrated just after these ..."exercise" (compress,saline,massage)????

and, i feel some small irritation sometimes wen i put saline in the eye.....but this irritation goes after some times.....but is it normal?