"Refresh lubricant tears" vs "Refresh Plus"

[desh]

I read somewhere that "carboxyl methylcellulose sodium" in "Refresh
plus" may be harmful to some people and so preference would be to
use "Refresh lubricant tears". Both don't have any preservatives.
I see a number of people using "Refresh Plus" here.

Anyone switched from "Refresh Plus" to "Refresh lubricant tears" and
found it better?

What really aggrevates my dry eye condition is the central heater
at work. As soon as I enter my work place, my eyes feel very dry/red.

The other problem is I'm also allergic to perfumes, chemicals. My doctor
recommended optivar twice a day. But I feel optivar is making my eyes
more dry ( but helping with the allergy situation).

Anyone with similar experience?

Thanks
Edit/Delete Message

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi desh & welcome

I read somewhere that "carboxyl methylcellulose sodium" in "Refresh
plus" may be harmful to some people and so preference would be to
use "Refresh lubricant tears". Both don't have any preservatives.

The Refresh product line is a little confusing - some of the products have the same ingredients in different concentrations and others have totally different active ingredients. Refresh and Refresh Plus are CMC, but one of the other Refreshes is PVA and povidone, and I also ran across a third one the other day that I'd never seen before that I think had polysorbate.

CMC is a common active in lubricants and Refresh Plus is probably one of the most commonly used lubricants. (Not necessarily to be confused with "best".) Different lubricants work best for different people... we are all very diverse... I'd go with what works for you. There really is no shortcut unfortunately for a lot of experimentation. Check out our artificial tears poll in the Polls forum, and also our lubricants page for ideas.

What really aggrevates my dry eye condition is the central heater
at work. As soon as I enter my work place, my eyes feel very dry/red.

Common problem for a lot of people here. Check out our page on surviving in the office environment and also the forum on the same topic.

The other problem is I'm also allergic to perfumes, chemicals. My doctor
recommended optivar twice a day. But I feel optivar is making my eyes
more dry ( but helping with the allergy situation).

The preservative in Optivar is about as toxic to the cornea as they come. This is a common catch-22 for dry eye patients with other eye conditions. Switching to something that is preserved with something gentler, or available in an unpreserved form, may help.

[desh]

Optivar

Thanks Rebecca.

For allergies ( perfumes etc), are there other alternatives?
I also feel that optivar is making my eyes more dry and would
like to stop using it.

My doctor seems to always prescribe medications with preservatives
that are not good for eyes . Now that I have read a lot of good
information from this forum, I'm much more educated and I can ask
him the right questions.
But in the meantime, if you know of any good allergy medications
without preservaties, let me know.

Thanks

[Rebecca Petris]

For allergies ( perfumes etc), are there other alternatives?
I also feel that optivar is making my eyes more dry and would
like to stop using it.

I would suggest posting that question to Dr. Latkany in the Q&A forum.

I don't know that much about allergy drops (except that I don't like most of them because they are drying). But you might ask about an unpreserved NSAID i.e. preservative free Acular? Anybody else here got a good experience with an allergy drop?

[kakinda]

HI,
no there aren't that many options in terms of topical antihistaminic drops probably because doctors continue to prescribe preserved eye drops such as [o]Patanol and the like; have you tried Zaditor (single use vials) and Alomide (check the spelling) -Almide in France - (I believe they're both available in the US now in PF versions)? ketitofen fumarate and lodoxamide (check the spelling I'm not at home so i can't chek it myself) should be the main active substances. I think it helps a little bit (my case is severe both in terms of DE and allergy).
Even Restasis may help a little (i have noticed less constant allergies/red eyes with it, although when a big sudden and severe reaction to an allergen occurs, cyclosporine doesn't seem to help in my case).
Give you doctor some feedback on how you feel with preserved eye drops.
Educating some doctors is part of our job as patients, right? or at least so I have I noticed to be my job over the last 10 years...
anyway, if we don't, then who will?
But a preservative such as BAK (benzalkonium) in allergy drops is a non-sense. Perpetuating inflammation, disrupting the tear film, increasing permeability won't help...
Saline rinsing is helpful as well, use glasses as much as possible...
Probably Dr Laktany will have other suggestions.

[desh]

Acular PF

I suggested to my doctor that he prescribe Acular PF and he did so.
I just dropped off the prescription.
Anyone used Acular Preservative free drops and any inputs on
how good its? If its going to make my eyes dry in the long run,
I would want to find an alternate drops.