About us : Eye Drop Hero

Hi, my name is John Lipchak O.D and I’ve been practicing as an optometrist for almost 30 years. As an eye doctor, one of the most common complaints that my patients have is that they hate taking eye drops. They poke themselves in the eye or miss their eye completely. A study showed - "Over 50% of the patients surveyed were either noncompliant or demonstrated improper administration technique." 1. Especially important if I’m treating glaucoma or an infection that could lead to blindness.

When I first started my practice, I had a 5 year old patient who had a small scratch on his cornea. I asked the parents to use moisturizing drops in the eye and return the next day. The boy returned with bruising around that eye because the parents tried so hard to force the eye open. From that point on, I taught all my patients how to put drops in with their eyes closed! You might think “that can’t work”, but it does and I’ve included a reference that endorses this method(2).

I developed the Eye Drop Hero to help people take their drops. It can be used to put drops in 3 different areas around the eye. My favorite is in the corner by your nose (where the tears come out) because your eyes are closed and gravity holds the drop in place (if head tilted back or lying down) until you blink and the drop gently flows into the eye. My least favorite is placing the drop right on the open eye because the eye is too sensitive and you’ll quickly blink it out. The third way is to pull down the lower lid and place the drop in the pouch that’s created (still possible to pull down lower eyelid with Eye Drop Hero on). One final tip: most drops can be refrigerated and cooler drops are usually more soothing. Ask your pharmacist.

I hope Eye Drop Hero will make it easier to put drops in your eyes, or someone else’s eyes.

References:1- R. Kholdebarin, R. J. Campbell, Y. P. Jin, and Y. M. Buys, “Multicenter study of compliance and drop administration in glaucoma,” Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology, vol. 43, pp. 454–461,2008.

2- Regarding drop instillation technique- "Close your eyes. Place a drop in the inner corner of your eyelid (the side closest to the bridge of your nose). By opening your eyes slowly, the drop should fall right into your eye." Eye Drop Tips. (2017, October 29). Retrieved from https://www.glaucoma.org/treatment/eyedrop-tips.php