My ophthalmologist did not give me a period of time to use Pataday and mentioned nothing about it being harmful. Sadly, I don’t find that to be odd anymore in doctors. Seems for every medication I am prescribed, I have to be the one to bring up negative side effects to the doctor before they’re acknowledged. Maybe that’s the nature of their job. He did give me samples of a new expensive nasal spray for dry eyes called Tyrvaya. That one was not effective for me either. Just as well as it has a high ticket price. I wonder if any of these pricey meds for dry eye have preservatives? Have to look that up after this post. Ordered the heat/moisture mask from Amazon. I’m hoping that helps as the eye seems to be getting worse lately. I just had annual blood work done with specifics around auto immune testing, which came back positive. I seem to be presenting all of the symptoms of Sjogren’s from dry eye to dry mouth and difficulty swallowing sometimes. I’m now wondering if there will be auto immune meds I’ll have to take and if they will help my eye. Kind of doubting it, but you never know. Good luck with your quest! If I find anything that works better or I have a different answer for you, I will let you know.

Came back to edit… Checked on Restasis, Xiidra, and Tyrvaya and none have preservatives.👍 I don’t know about your insurance, but they’re all unaffordable on mine.