Make your Dry Eye Treatment more Green

When you have dry eye disease your eyes are very sensitive.  You may find that anything you add to them stings, burns, irritates or otherwise makes them worse.  Preservatives can be especially irritating to your eyes and over time the buildup of preservatives can cause increased redness and irritation.   

The top things eye care practitioners advise to avoid these preservatives are preservative-free drops and daily disposable contact lenses.  Here, I will cover why this is great advice, other contact lens options, and what we can do to reduce our waste products by using these types of disposable products.  

Why preservative-free? 

Preservatives are used in bottled artificial tears, medicated drops, and contact lens cleaners to prevent bacteria from growing in the bottle.  Preservatives help to extend the shelf life of products and make our lives more convenient.  However, these ingredients can be irritating to the eyes. 

A common preservative found in eye care products is BAK, benzalkonium chloride.  This is a preservative that has been used in ophthalmology since the 1940s, and it is found in about 70% of all eye drops, both prescription and over the counter.  Use of BAK has been associated with conjunctival inflammation and corneal compromise, redness of the eyes and a breakdown of the front surface of the eye.   

If you are confused about the best artificial tear to use for your eyes and lifestyle, check out The Ultimate Guide to Artificial Tears here. 

Preservative-free Artificial Tears

What if the preservative is an inactive ingredient? 

When a preservative is listed under the inactive ingredients, it is not considered preservative-free.  Inactive ingredients indicate that they do not increase the effectiveness of the therapeutic ingredients.  So, having a preservative makes an artificial tear last longer in the bottle, but it does not make the tear work any better.  In this case, the preservative could be listed as inactive.   

If you are sensitive to eye drops or a known dry eye sufferer, it is best to only utilize preservative-free drops.  These will be the ones in the vial containers.  

Check out the list of toxic ingredients to avoid in your artificial tears and eye makeup here. 

Daily disposable contact lenses 

Contact lens wearers, especially those already suffering from dry eye symptoms, can develop intolerance to preservatives in multipurpose solutions.  The symptoms of solution intolerance can mimic contact lens-related dry eyes.  Switching your current multi-purpose cleaning solution to a preservative-free, hydrogen peroxide-based lens care system is a great way to limit the preservatives in your contact lens care products.  

Otherwise, you can avoid sensitivity problems with contact lens solutions by switching to a daily disposable contact lens.  Daily disposable lenses eliminate the need for lens care products because you simply discard them after a single use.  If you would like to know more about daily disposable contact lenses and why I recommend them so often to my patients, watch the video above, on Facebook, or on YouTube. 

Daily Disposable contact lens

Remember, contact lenses are not to be discarded by flushing them down the toilet or rinsing them down the sink.  Due to the flexibility of the lens material, these lenses can get stuck in the pipes and clog your drains.  The best way to dispose of a contact lens is by recycling them, but it that is not available to you, please just place them in the trash can. 

This still feels wasteful.  Is there a way to recycle all of this packaging? 

The cardboard packing of the boxes for your contact lenses, contact lens cleaners, artificial tears, and medicated eye drops can all be recycled with your other household cardboards where ever you are recycling now.  Just place these boxes in with your other cardboard.   

Bausch and Lomb launched a contact lens recycling program in the summer of 2018.  The program is called The ONE by ONE Recycling Program.  You can use it to recycle waste associated with contact lenses, including the contact lenses themselves, top foil, and opened blister pack plastic.  Although it is a Bausch and Lomb sponsored program, you can use it to recycle any brand of contact lenses. 

Currently, you can’t recycle your contact lenses and plastic blister packs through your usual recycling program.  Bausch and Lomb explains, “Due to the size of contact lenses and their packaging, these materials get filtered out at recycling facilities and directed to the waste stream, contributing to landfills across the United States.”   

How do I recycle these tiny pieces of plastic then? 

The process for recycling these materials is simple.  Each day collect your used blister packs, tin foil, and contact lenses into a small cardboard box.  I suggest keeping one handy underneath your bathroom sink.  Once the box is full, you can send it off to TerraCycle yourself by printing a free shipping label at BauschRecycles.com.  Or, you may drop off your waste at a participating eye doctor’s office.  Click here to see if your eye doctor, or another one in your area, participates in the recycling program.   

Once received, the contact lenses and blister packs are separated and cleaned. The metal layers of the blister packs are recycled separately, while the contact lenses and plastic blister pack components are melted into plastic that can be remolded to make recycled products. 

If you are located in Shreveport, LA, you can bring your contact lens-related recyclables to Lusk Eye Specialists.  We will collect these recyclable materials in our bin.  Once we have 10lbs of material, we ship the box to TerraCycle for recycling. 

Alternatives to a daily disposable contact lens 

 If you are unable to find your power in a daily disposable contact lens.  You have two alternatives to reduce the preservatives getting into your eyes.  First, you can which contact lens solutions to a preservative-free hydrogen peroxide-based cleaner like Clear Care.  Clear care is a great contact lens disinfecting solution that can be used with any soft contact lens and most RGP lenses as well. 

Clear Care Plus Contact Lens Disinfecting Solution

Or, you could switch to a dry eye friendly lens called a scleral lens.  These lenses are a specialty designed lens not available to every eye doctor’s office, but they offer exceptional vision in every power imaginable and they are dry eye friendly.  You can find out more about these lenses by checking out the Scleral Lens Education Society.  And, you can see what one of my own patients with severe dry eye thinks about his scleral lenses by watching the video here. 

 Scleral lens vs. RGP

Dry eye treatment should make you feel good 

Reducing the preservatives in your artificial tears, contact lenses, and contact lens cleaning solutions can make a world of difference to the comfort of your eyes.  Getting all of the preservatives out of your tear film will make your eyes more comfortable.  Your eyes will be less red and sensitive.   

Recycling the packaging will make you feel like you are environmentally responsible.  And, TerraCycle makes a $1 donation to Optometry Giving Sight for every pound of accepted packaging sent through this program.  Using in the Bausch and Lomb ONE by ONE Recycling Program benefits the environment by reducing the amount of waste deposited to landfills across the country. 
 

Conclusion 

Patients with sensitive eyes and dry eye sufferers need to reduce the number of preservatives going into their eyes.  Utilizing preservative-free tears, preservative-free contact lens cleaners and daily disposable contact lenses are the best ways to eliminate these preservatives from irritating your eyes.   

Download the list of toxic ingredients to avoid in your eye care solutions and eye makeup here.  And, choose the best artificial tear for your eyes here. 

Thanks again for checking out the blog again this week.  Leave a comment below with your favorite brand of preservative free tears and I’ll send you a coupon for more. 

Pamela E. Theriot, OD, FAAO 

Sensitive or irritated eyes hold you back from doing the things you love in life.   A customized treatment plan is the best way to alleviate your symptoms and restore the clear and comfortable vision you deserve. "Alleviate Dry Eye" is available on Amazon.