To apply your eye drops:

1. First sit down comfortably.
2. Shake the bottle a few times (some medications are suspensions and need to be shaken prior to use).
3. Rest your hand holding the bottle, on your forehead.
4. Put your head back and look up while pulling your lower lid down.
5. Aim the bottle tip over your eye and drop the eye drop. Avoid touching your eye lashes with the tip of the eye-dropper.
6. Wipe away any excess drops with a wet tissue (not a dry one) to wipe away any drop residue from your skin. In the case of some drops (eg. Travatan Z ®, Duotrav ®, Lumigan RC ®, Xalatan ® and Xalacom ®), eye drop residue can cause darkening of the skin. Using a wet tissue to wipe the excess away will help prevent this temporary side effect (darkening disappears if the eye drop is stopped).
7. If you are taking more than one drop, wait a minimum of 2 minutes between drops before applying the next one. This will ensure that each drop has some time to be absorbed.
8. Often, there is excess drops that gets wasted. Try to avoid dropping excess amounts of drops in your eye. One drop is sufficient even though there will often be more than 50-70% of the drop that is wasted.

Eye ointments should always be applied a few minutes AFTER any eye drops are applied. Be aware that ointment will blur your vision for a few minutes. Use the following steps to apply ointment:

1. Sit down comfortably and put your head back.
2. Pull your lower lid down.
3. Apply ointment into the pocket formed by your lid pulled away from your eye. You can put in about ½ inch strip of ointment. If you are having trouble releasing the ointment from the tube, you can apply the ointment to the tip of a Q-tip, and then insert it into the eyelid pocket. Try not to touch the tip of the tube to the lids.
4. Blinking the eyes will spread the ointment to the upper lids as well.
5. Wipe off the excess with a clean tissue.