Why Can I Taste My Eyedrops?
Have you ever asked yourself, ‘why can I taste my eyedrops?’ You may have heard that you do more smelling than tasting when something is in your mouth. But surely you aren’t drinking your eyedrops when they reach the surface of your eyes, so what gives?
In reality, your head is a smaller place than you think. The pipework behind your eyes, nose, and throat are all connected in subtle ways, allowing a medication entering your eyes to conjure up a “taste” in your mouth after you use it. While this is normal for a large number of eyedrop bottles, that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. In fact, tasting your eyedrops highlights an issue Nanodropper is trying to solve!
How Are the Eyes and Throat Linked?
The behind-the-scenes workings inside your head are nothing short of amazing. Being the home of the brain and airways, there’s not a whole lot of empty space to organize all the different pathways and “tubes” which lead from your face to the rest of your body. Thankfully, consolidation seems to be the body’s masterful art. Just like all roads lead to Rome, it seems that many passages in your head lead to your esophagus — including the puncta in your eyes.
The lacrimal puncta are tiny holes in your bottom eyelids through which your tears (and any eyedrops you instill) flow after a brief journey across the surface of the eye. Think of it like a drain where all the moisture passes through. Once inside one of the puncta, your tears travel down a narrow corridor called the nasolacrimal duct. As you might tell from the name, this connects our eyes to our nose — which means, yes, your eyedrops enter the back of your nose after you blink them in!
From the nose, your tears flow through the nasal cavity to a crossroads between the nose and the throat, where they are eventually swallowed. Ever notice how your nose runs when you cry? It’s all connected!
Most medicated drops become mixed with enough mucus and saliva after their journey to make their taste hardly perceptible, but under the right circumstances a sensation can still be noticed on the roof of your mouth. In the end, any tears and eyedrops that aren’t completely absorbed by your body can in fact reach your throat!
If you notice a taste, the easiest way to prevent it is to try nasolacrimal occlusion. After putting in your eyedrops, lightly and carefully press down along the inner corners of your eyes next to the bridge of your nose. This can “plug” your puncta and prevent extra medication from reaching your throat.
Is Tasting Your Eyedrops a Problem?
It’s true that tasting your eyedrops isn’t uncommon (especially with regimens that require frequent use of medicated drops), and in most cases, FDA approved eye drops shouldn’t be harmful. However, for chronic conditions like glaucoma, oversized drops can increase adverse side effects of the medication. Some medications can cause neurological, gastrointestinal, dermatological, cardiac, or renal complications, which can be worsened if you have any preexisting conditions.
In addition to potential systemic complications, oversized drops can contribute to local symptoms like redness, burning, and blurred vision. If you are concerned about potential medication side effects, talk to your eye doctor.
In general, picking up an unwanted flavor does expose an underlying problem — your eyedrops are too big. Even if you don’t experience obvious side effects from your drops, this extra runoff is no good heading down your throat… it’s wasting the medication!
With how expensive some medicated eyedrops can run, the last thing you want to do is forfeit even a single drop of your supply! You could land the drops perfectly on your eye, and runoff medication would still escape the surface of the eye too quickly. The solution you taste in your mouth represents most of the wasted medication…and the increased potential of unwanted side effects.
A Nanodropper Adaptor Could Minimize the Problem
The solution is less solution. Current eyedrops are about 80% too large for your eye to absorb. At Nanodropper, we don’t take this dilemma lightly — which is why we’ve created an answer.
If you use a Nanodropper Adaptor, the size of your eyedrops is reduced to just the amount your eyes can absorb. Simply twist the adaptor on your compatible brand of eyedrops and you’re good to go! With less drops wasted, you can take better control of your medical finances and eye health in a single investment.
Tired of tasting your drops and making frequent trips to the pharmacy? Let us know if a Nanodropper helps reduce this problem for you!
