Allergy Management Plan

Wondering how to manage ocular allergies? Here is a handout on how to manage ocular allergies easily, cheaply and effectively. Remember no eye rubbing - eye rubbing makes keratoconus worse!!! Avoiding rubbing your eyes in keratoconus is absolutely critical to controlling the disease.

In summary

Use a preventer medication every day. Ketitofen (Zaditen) is cheap and available over-the-counter in pharmacies without a prescription. It can safely be used for years. On the bottle it says only used for 10 days but this is just for people who may be using it intermittently so that they seek medical attention to ensure their diagnosis is correct. Occasionally Zaditen (ketotifen) will not work for people and they may like to use Patanol (olopajtidine). This is very effective but significantly more expensive than Zaditen and requires a prescription.

Occasionally you may get breakthrough allergy symptoms despite using one of the preventer medications in that case it is good to use an antihistamine eyedrop. These include Zyrtec and Livostin. You should not need to use these too often.

Avoiding antihistamines is ideal because they can dry the eyes out and sometimes make them more itchy. Using some plain lubricating eyedrops can also be effective at washing away the allergens that make the eyes itchy. Using a nasal spray for any nose based allergies such as a runny nose and sneezing is also very effective. Again, these are often available over-the-counter.

Allergies are very common in people with character kindness and it is very important to manage them effectively.

Dr Cronin’s allergy management plan for ocular allergies, allergic conjunctivitis and keratoconus.