written or reviewed by
Howard Weiss, M.D.

How to Put in Eye Drops: A Step-by-Step Video Guide

Putting in eye drops isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Whether you’re using prescription eye drops for glaucoma or another eye condition, proper technique can help make sure the medication gets into your eye where it belongs.

In this short video, Dr. Howard Weiss of Washington Eye Physicians & Surgeons demonstrates a simple, five-step technique for putting in eye drops safely and effectively. He shares practical tips for positioning your head, keeping your hand steady, and getting the drop into your eye without touching it with the bottle.

Watch the video below to learn how to put in eye drops with confidence.

How to Put in Eye Drops Video

Video Transcript: How to Put in Eye Drops

Dr. Howard Weiss here from Washington Eye Physicians and Surgeons in Washington, DC with an eyedrop lesson. Simple, safe, foolproof. Five steps.

• The first thing you do is wash your hands or disinfect your hands so you have clean hands.
• Second step, take the cap off the bottle and put it down flat so it doesn’t roll onto the floor.
• Third step, recognize these drops are gravity fed. You can’t get them in your eye like this or this. You have to have your eye pointing up and the bottle pointing down. So put your head back. The easiest way to do this is lying in bed with your head on a pillow, but this works too. Head back.
• The next step is to pull down the lower lid. So you have a steady target because your head is steady, but you want to have a big target too. And the way you get a big target is by pulling down the lower lid. Most people think, “oh, I’ll do that with my finger”, but a finger is weak. A fist is strong. So make a fist with your non-dominant hand, that’s my left hand, and use this part of your index finger to pull down your lower lid. Big target, steady target, and big target. Now the fist also helps because it’s going to provide a rest for my dropper hand and a spacer so I don’t poke my eye. Don’t poke your eye.
• Then you hold the bottle like a dart. I’m going to play darts on the ceiling here between thumb and forefinger. And when you’re all set, you put everything together. You turn your wrist, not the bottle, and you put pinky on pinky and you squeeze the bottle and the drop falls in your eye. And half a drop counts because that’s all the eye can hold. If you get some on your lid and some on the eyeball, that’s good enough.

If you get the whole thing on your nose, you’ve got to use a second drop. Then close your eye for a few minutes, five minutes ideally, because you want the drop to work inside your eye, not on the surface of your eye, and that requires some contact time. So close your eye for five minutes and then you’re all set to go on your way.

Thanks so much.