Yesterday, a “wall of pollen” turned the sky a yellowish-green over the greater Boston area, and several patients came in to see me with severe ocular allergies. Their eyes were red and watery and itchy, and some could barely even open their eyes.
The itching from the allergies was so bad that my patients were rubbing their eyes non-stop, which was concerning to me because I have a lot of keratoconus patients. And eye rubbing is associated with keratoconus development. So is ocular allergies. And dry eye. And UV exposure…
Anyways, a good preventative eye care technique is to avoid rubbing your eyes. And to do this, you have to treat the underlying cause of the eye rubbing, which is usually dry eye or allergies. For preventative dry eye tips, read my blog about preventing dry eye. Now, lets go over allergy treatments since there are yellow pollen clouds floating over Boston right now.
Pataday is my favorite OTC eye allergy itch relief eyedrop. It is an antihistamine and mast cell stabilizer and you only have to take it once a day!
Zaditor was my favorite OTC ocular allergy eyedrop before Pataday became Over-The-Counter in 2020. It also works well at relieving itching and preventing eye rubbing.
Cool compresses can reduce itching, inflammation, swelling, and eye rubbing. It’s a great alternative if you are not an eyedrop person. Also, I always prefer trying preventative eye care techniques that don’t involve drugs first because why use drugs if you don’t have to?
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