Hello from an utterly confused person.

[SilvaLiz]

Hi, I hope my topic title doesnt seem foolish but after spending most of today reading about various eye drops etc for dry eyes I truly do feel utterly confused. It doesnt help that I'm from the uk and have rapidly discovered that most eye drops have different names in USA and europe, *holds head, groans and says argh!*

Anyway my name is Liz, also answer to Silva. I have dry eyes, which have improved slightly after being off anti depressants for a few weeks but still feel dry espeicially as day goes on. I also suffer from recurring iritis for 15 years, and am seen regularly by eye hospital, unfortunately they dont offer too much advice about the dry eyes.

For 15 years I've used hypromellose, have now been told I'm reacting to preservative in it, have tried it without preservative but think I may also react to that. Tried celluvisc, hated it, too sticky and blurs vision, was using hycosan happily then read about the risks with it and decided to stop. Now trying to find a preservative free eye drop that suits me, I hate the sticky gel type ones, the blurring lasts too long and my lashes stick etc.

Anyway I'm rambling, my main question which i hope it is ok to put here is this. The celluvisc I brought (refresh in USA ?) says it has carmellose sodium in, today I brought preservative free refresh "sooth and protect" (refresh plus in USA ??) eye drops in vials from my local chemist and the active ingredient in those is sodium carboxymethycellulose. Is sodium carboxymethycellulose the same ingredient as carmellose sodium or not ? Reading on here it seems to be, but then why do are they called different things. Can anyone help please, I've spent hours seeking and cant find an answer anywhere online.

I do have other questions too, and if anyone could suggest preservative free eye drops which arent too gunky or sticky feeling and dont blur vision too much that would be wonderful. I'd love to find an eye drop with sodium hylaurenate in it which isnt phosphate buffered if one exists.

Thanks for any help.

[Lucy]

TheraTears is a good non-preserved drop and not gunky or thick.

Lucy

[Rebecca Petris]

Is sodium carboxymethycellulose the same ingredient as carmellose sodium or not ?

Carboxymethylcellulose (or CMC)

Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (or HPMC)

Our artificial tears reference list may be a help as it lists tears by active ingredients. However it's mostly US products and many of the ones available in the UK/Europe with sodium hyaluronate for example are not available here.

[brd888]

Systane is commonly available from Optician's in UK.
If you check eye drops contents on the box you want to look for Benzalkonium chloride. This is the preservative you want to avoid.

[SilvaLiz]

thanks for the info everyone.

[liz56]

Carboxymethylcellulose (or CMC)

Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (or HPMC)

Our artificial tears reference list may be a help as it lists tears by active ingredients. However it's mostly US products and many of the ones available in the UK/Europe with sodium hyaluronate for example are not available here.

Thanks, Rebecca. The artificial tears reference list is a really helpful resource!

[Guest]

Liz

In the UK there are not a lot of options available to you. Another you could try that is not too thick is Refresh Liquifilm. However, it does seem to have a name change every so often (or maybe a different product - who knows).

There is another one called Refresh Contacts that are available in most Asda optician stores.

You can also get them on prescription (which helps if you are using loads of them because the artificial tears preservative free are really expensive over time).


Hope this helps

Ian