Shelf life of eye drops

Many people didn’t know the shelf life of eye drops before. In fact, we only understood it some time ago. The expiration date of some eye drops we used before actually refers to the expiration date on the eye drops before they were opened. However, within a certain validity period, you need to have some knowledge of this at any time.

Under normal circumstances, the shelf life of eye drops has a great impact on whether people can use them normally. Generally speaking, the shelf life of eye drops is less than six months. Sometimes it is even less than three months, and the shelf life of the same eye drops is not the same as the instructions. In fact, there are many things involved. Let’s take a look at the introduction together.

The shelf life of eye drops after opening the bottle cap is generally 1 month, so why don't most eye drops have this expiration date marked on them? That's because the length of this "time" is closely related to the season, the environment of the placement, and the patient's usage habits (such as whether the eye drops come into contact with the eyes when instilled), and this time cannot be accurately determined.

The shelf life of unsealed eye drops is generally 1 to 3 years, which is stated in detail on the drug instructions. The shelf life is generally 1 month after opening the bottle cap, and patients should use it within one month. Otherwise, expired medicine will not only be ineffective, but may also easily cause allergic and toxic reactions. So how many days is the shelf life? In the past, many ophthalmic preparations did not give any detailed explanation on this. Now, if you can carefully read the instructions for use of each ophthalmic preparation before use, you can almost always find such a note in the densely packed handwriting as fine as a fly's head: "Ophthalmic preparations can be used for a maximum of 4 weeks after activation." Therefore, the validity period is not equal to the usage period.

As for the shelf life of eye drops, if they are not opened, the shelf life of eye drops is generally one to two years. Specifically, we need to read the instructions on the package. However, for some eye drops that have been opened, we must use them up within one month. After that time, we must not continue to use them.