How and when to use bimatoprost

Always read the instructions that come with your medicine.

It's best to use your eye drops in the evening as bimatoprost works better then.

If you wear contact lenses, make sure you take them out before using your eye drops. Wait 15 minutes before putting your lenses back in. The drops may make your vision blurred if you use them with contact lenses. Also, the preservative used in some bottled eye drops may change the colour of your contact lenses.

1. Wash your hands.
2. If you're using a bottle, shake it and twist off the cap. If it does not come with a separate dropper and you have not used these drops before, practise gently squeezing the bottle away from your eye first, to get used to the pressure and the time it takes for 1 drop to fall out. If you're using the single-dose dropper, twist off the tip.
3. Use your finger to gently pull down the lower eyelid to form a small pocket and tilt your head back.
4. Make sure the tip of the dropper or bottle does not touch your eye, eyelashes, eyelid, or any other surface.
5. Hold the dropper or the tip of the bottle over your eye and squeeze the dropper or bottle gently so that 1 drop goes into the pocket formed by your lower eyelid. Try to avoid the eye drop liquid touching the skin around your eye.
6. Release your lower eyelid and close your eye. This helps to keep the drop in the eye.
7. Wipe away any extra liquid with a clean tissue.
8. Repeat in your other eye if your doctor has told you to do this. There's enough liquid in 1 single-dose dropper to put a drop in both eyes if needed.
9. Put the cap back on the bottle. If you're using the single-dose dropper, throw it away.

If you have difficulty opening your eye drop bottles or putting eye drops into your eyes, talk to your pharmacist as there are devices that can help you with this.

If you use bimatoprost with other eye drops, wait at least 5 minutes before using the other eye drops. The second eye drops can wash out the bimatoprost, so it may not work as well. It's best to use eye ointments last.