Tasting my steriods?

Last Saturday i slept in my contacts and as a result I developed 3 corneal abrasions and an eye infection. I went first to my local Primed who gave me antibiotic eye drops and then on the next visit made me wear a patch, then on the following visit, sent me running to a specialist without a clue what was going on.

She looked at my eye, gave me a different kind of antibacterial drop and instructed me to NOT wear a patch and come back in 2 days. I do as instructed and she checked out my eye, she is happy with the progress but is worried about scaring on my eye (its just a small dot the size of a pencil tip) so prescribed me steriod drops to take to help knock out the rest of the infection and to help prevent scaring.

Well today is the second day Ive taken the drops and Ive noticed that Im *Tasting* the steroid drops. My sinus have been acting up and ive been swallowing alot, and I noticed about 2 or so minutes after applying the drop when I swallow I get this foul nasty taste in the back of my throat and it lasts a good 10-15 minutes. At first thought it was a fluke because I ate a little debbie and drank a coke at the same time, but this is my 4th time and its happened every time.

Is this normal?

[Sandy Feldman, MD, MS]

Dear KitN_Li,
It is possible that you can taste the drop if it is draining from your eye into your nose and throat, the normal drainage pathway. You can try putting pressure over the lacrimal sac to try to limit drainage into the mouth.


Dr. Feldman

Sandy T. Feldman, M.D., M.S.
ClearView Eye and Laser Medical Center
San Diego, California

[leoguy04]

Hello there. I had my corneal transplant a year ago and in steroid drops two times a day. If you read the pamphlet in the medicine box they do inform you that you can taste the medicine. This is VERY normal . It's not only for steroid drops but for many other eye drops too. I can't technically explain why but it's something to do with the draining of the med from your eyes. So, don't worry.. IT'S NORMAL! :))

[berrywoo]

To minimize drainage down your throat and "tasting" the drops here's what you do:

Immediately after putting the drop in your eye(s), close your eye(s), lean forward and apply light pressure to the inner corner of your eye where your tear duct is for about a minute.

[leoguy04]

Drinking water does help me to reduce the intensity of the taste, :)

[KitN_Li]

Yes it was helpful. I got the little bottle directly from my eye dr. so I didn't get a pamphlet that comes with the box.