The following specifications particularly describe the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed

TITLE OF INVENTION :

Eye dropper

FIELD OF INVENTION:

Ophthalmology

INTRODUCTION:

Eye drops application into the eye is a common practice for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. The patients are asked to apply the eye drops at different timings periodically according to the need and purpose. Many a time patients fail to follow the instructions given by the doctor due to several reasons. Non availability of care takers for these patients especially the elderly is the commonest reason for non compliance that any ophthalmologist will come across. So the patients try to apply eye drops on their own and damage the cornea or spill the eye drops around the eye. This becomes a cumbersome and wasteful process for the patient and the ophthalmologist as both are unable to find a solution.

THE INVENTION:

This invention pertains to the field of ophthalmology. This is a cup shaped spiral device having a central hole to accommodate the inverted eye drops bottle. The cup shaped spiral is either made up of plastic or metal, having a larger ring at the bottom and concentrically diminishing sizes of rings until the smallest ring is reached. The smallest ring is sufficient to allow the inverted eye drops bottle with its cap in place. The diminishing sized concentric rings are connected to each other on 4 sides with a straight rod like structure extending from the biggest ring to the smallest ring. When the user needs to use the device, the user has to invert and fix the eye drop bottle in to the dropper and keep the whole unit over the orbital margins and apply the eye drops by pressing the bottle.

PRIOR ART:

The present system advocates that the eye drops should be applied into the eye by pulling down the lower lid so that the lower fornix is opened and drops applied into it. It can be done either by the patient himself or by a caretaker or a helper. There is no such device as this invention in the prior art to apply eye drops.

However there are some devices which will touch the lid to apply the eye drops which is again not acceptable by the ophthalmologists as it may injure the cornea of the eye. A mirror like structure was used by some to reflect the cornea to apply the eye drops which also is proved to be not a good idea and it has become an obsolete now.

BACKGROUND:

Every ophthalmologist in the world prescribes eye drops to his/her patient and advice them to apply into the eyes. But most of the times the ophthalmologists do not know for sure if the patient really applied the eye drop in the proper way. Some patients are very shrewd and compliant, dutifully following all the instructions given by the doctor. But majority of the patients do not follow the instructions and even if they use the medicines as prescribed, the method in which they use may be wrong. It is practically very difficult for the medical personnel to keep track of what is happening at patients end and whether they applied the eye drops or not. Some try to hide the fact that eye drops were not applied properly for fear of being scolded by the doctor. There are some eye diseases like glaucoma which warrant eye drops application at exact timings. Even if the drops are not applied regularly for few days, there are studies to prove that there will be considerable amount of nerve damage due to the disease.

So applying the eye drops at appropriate timings and by the appropriate methods is very important over which the medical fraternity has no control. We are all forced to believe that the patient has applied the eye drops. In this scenario it was envisaged that if a device like this exists, it would enhance the compliance of the patient by applying the eye drops even in the absence of the attender or care taker. This device is designed in such a way that the user can use it by himself to apply eye drops into his eyes without the help of others. This would provide utmost freedom for the patients by making them independent in applying the eye drops. SIZES AND SHAPES:

The sizes and shapes could be variable from place to place and from medicine to medicine. However a standard size could be arrived at by determining the average size of the human orbit. The orbit of the eye is a bony cage designed in such a way that it accommodates the eye ball in all possible directions within a muscle cone. The orbit is formed by frontal, zygomatic and maxillary bones of the face to provide a cavity for the eye ball. So the eye drop dropperring has to be of a size, a little larger than the size of the orbit. The variations in the orbital size are noticed between the people of the western and eastern world. The size of the ring could be varied according to the regional variations in the size of the orbit in such a way that the largest ring of the eye drop dropper should fit correctly over the orbit and lie around the orbital margin. The upper margin should coincide with the upper margin of the eyebrow and the medial margin should coincide with the lateral aspect of the nasal bridge. The lateral and lower borders can be easily felt. So the average size of the largest ring of the eye drop dropper is 62 X 52 mm, an oval shaped ring. Then the second and third ring are of diminishing sizes and the final ring is of the size of 24mm diameter for larger eye drop bottles and 16mm diameter for small and slender eye drop bottles. The outer most ring is of oval shape but the innermost ring is a perfect circle. These are bridged by bridges on either side.

Detailed description:

DIAGRAM

Enclosed

DRAWING DESCRIPTION:

Fig: 1. Eye dropper- Side view showing how the eye dropper is used.

1. Central Ring

2. Ring

3. Ring

4. Ring

5. Outer Ring Fig: 1 shows the eye drop applicators superior view. The whole structure appears like a pyramid where the central ring 1 is seen as a circular structure to accommodate the neck of the inverted eye drops bottle 7. The rings 2, 3, 4 and 5 are not exactly circular in shape. The outer most ring 5 is of the shape and size suitable to be placed over the orbit in such a way that the superior portion of the outermost ring 5 lies just above the upper margin of the eyebrow. This position will make it appropriate for the eye drops bottle to be just over the cornea of the eye. The approximate size of the outermost ring 5 is 62mm x 52mm which is a little larger than the size of the orbital cavity. Thus the eye dropper when placed over the eye, should cover the entire orbital cavity. The rings 4, 3 and 2 are of diminishing sizes from the Outer ring 5 and the size of the Central ring 1 is 16 mm which will be just sufficient to accommodate the neck of the eye drops bottle at its neck. This eye dropper may not be of any use for the ear drops. This arrangement helps the user by preventing hurting of the eyes and spilling of the eye drops over the eyelids causing damage of the cornea and wastage of eye drops. The eye dropper can be made with plastics, metals and alloys.

Fig 1 Shows the side view of the eye drops dropper along with the eye drops bottle 7 in inverted position and the whole unit positioned on the eye ready for application of the eye drops.

The eye dropper can have modifications, alterations as per convenience and usage. An additional pressing mechanism or a pressing method can also be adopted to enhance the utility of the product. The drawings are not to the scale. The embodiments of the safe and self eye drop applicators are similar structures except for size and shape and they are placed in multi various places according to the need.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art of having a benefit of this disclosure that this invention provides a safe and self eye drops applicator. It should be understood that the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive manner and are not intended to limit the invention to the particular forms and examples disclosed. On the contrary, the invention includes any further modifications, changes rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices and embodiments apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined by the following claims. Thus it is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such further modifications, changes, rearrangements, substitutions, alternatives, design choices and embodiments.

The eye dropper may be of different shapes like oval, elliptical, square, triangle shaped, rectangle shaped or any other newly named acceptable shapes, with the connecting rod or without, with the number of the rings more or less having uniform gaps or un uniform gaps between the rings, which must serve the purpose of easily and safely applying the eye drops, all such modifications and alterations are under the scope of this patent filing. In addition to this, the additional fittings and devices to make the compression of the eye drop bottle easier, either mechanical, motorized are covered under this invention.

The eye dropper is comprised of a series of rings with bridges uniting these rings. It is a cup shaped structure. The innermost ring is designed in such a way that it accommodates and holds the eye drop bottle. Hence the cap of the eye drop bottle is seen within the inner aspect of the eye drop applicator. The outer ring is of maximum 62 mm x 52 mm approximately. The sizes are variable from continent to continent and size to size of the eye drop bottle. The outer ring size will vary according to the variations in the size of human orbital cavity. The diameter of the innermost ring will vary according to the outer diameter of the mouth of the manufactured eye drop which usually varies from 16mm to 24mm.The number of rings may also vary from case to case. But for practical purposes it has to be considered there are 5 rings in toto. This number is sufficient to provide enough space for the eye drop bottle cap.

This dropper helps to maintain a safe distance between the tip of the eye drop bottle and the tip of the cornea.

METHOD TO USE:

The eye drop bottle is packed in the usual manner. The eye dropper is packed separately. Both the packs are opened from the carton boxes and placed on the table. Now the eye dropper is kept inverted and the eye drop bottle head is inserted into the central ring of the applicator. Then the whole unit is taken and the eye drop bottle cap is removed. Then the whole unit is kept on the patients orbit so that the outer ring of the dropper lies just around the orbital margins. Now the user presses the eye drop bottle to push down the eye drops into the eye. The user looks to the right if it is the right eye and to the left if it is the left eye. This ensures that the eye drop falls exactly into the medial canthus cavity and the patient can feel the eye drop falling into the eye. Then the whole unit is kept on the table with the cap repositioned to the eye drop bottle.

Alternately the outer ring eye dropper can be of any shape namely oval, semi oval, perfect circle, hexagonal, rectangular, and square or any other shape. But the innermost ring has to be only circular as the eye drop bottles are manufactured only in the cylindrical shapes.