GB2531264A

GB2531264A - Eye care accessories

Info

Publication number: GB2531264A
Application number: GB1418079.8A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Wayne Phillips
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-10-13
Filing date: 2014-10-13
Publication date: 2016-04-20
Also published as: GB201418079D0

Abstract

The present invention provides an eye-care accessory that comprises a bath 1 for applying an eyewash solution to a user's eye and having a top opening 1a with a rim 2 to press against the margin of the orbit of the eye, wherein the top opening 1a is covered by a sealing cover 3 that is adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening 1a and wherein the bath accommodates a dose of the eyewash solution therein held within the bath by the sealing cover 3 until required for use. Also claimed is a bath with a flexible or movable part or bellows 1f in its floor 1b whereby the bath 1 can be operated in the manner of a suction cup to adhere to the user's face by suction in use. Further claimed is a bath of holding contact lenses in a sterile cleaning solution 1, 1, where the top of the bath is covered by a sealing cover 3, the bath containing a volume of sterile cleaning solution and a contact lens bath where the floor of said bath has ridges 4.

Description

Eye care Accessories

Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns improvements in and relating to eye-care accessories and particularly eye care baths, including eyewash cups! baths and also holders for bathing contact lenses.

Background of the Invention

The conventional eyewash cup! bath for rinsing a user's eye with a dilute sterile saline solution or other eye-care liquid comprises an open-topped receptacle into which normally about ten millilitres of liquid! solution is poured from a large supply bottle just prior to use. The eyewash cup has an approximately elliptical! eye-shaped footprint and a large top opening with a level flattened or rounded rim to cup over the user's eye pressing sealingly against the face at the skull is bone surround of the user's eye socket/orbit so that the few millilitres of solution in the cup drenches the user's eye before the cup is lifted away from the user's face. The cup's seal to the user's face around the eye in use is imperfect and transient, being difficult to ensure and maintain, more so for some than others, and almost inevitably a substantial amount or even all of the solution will spill from the bath! cup down the user's face before it has had a chance to rinse the user's eye.

The low unit cost of many current plastics moulded eyewash cups! baths is such that they are often treated as disposable, especially in dispensaries, in hospitals or the like where it is important to avoid cross-infection. Use of such eyewash cups! baths is predicate on having to hand a separate supply of bottled dilute sterile saline solution or other eye-care liquid and can be problematic when supplies are low and the dispensing of the solution to the bath prior to use can itself take up valuable clinical time.

It is a first general object of a primary aspect of the present invention to provide an improved eyewash cup that mitigates against the short-comings of existing eyewash cups, providing a simple, quick to use, convenient eyewash cup! bath that facilitates the eye-washing process. It is a further object to provide an improved eyewash cup that is less vulnerable to spill than existing eyewash cups! baths while being held to the user's eye.

S The conventional contact lens holder for bathing! storing! cleaning contact lenses in a sterile solution between uses or for cleaning contact lenses is similar to an eyewash cup! bath in size, albeit often shallower and not as broad.

Since most contact lenses are approximately circular the holders tend to comprise a circular cylindrical receptacle normally formed as a linked twin pair of such receptacles to hold and bathe the two contact lenses separately of each other and each receptacle is generally enclosed by a respective screw cap covering its top opening. The sterile solution most often used for contact lenses is formulated to serve for cleaning, sterilising! disinfecting, lubricating and moisturising and may have a range of different ingredients. An example lubricating agent is polyvinyl pyrrolidone and an example disinfecting component is a stable oxychlorite complex of sodium chlorite and hydrogen peroxide. Most solutions used are aqueous solutions. The solutions are normally dispensed into the holder from a bottle and in so-doing can be spilt.

The efficiency of cleaning in the holder is primarily reliant on the strength of the cleaning solution.

It is a first general object of a second aspect of the present invention to provide an improved contact lens holder for bathing! storing! cleaning contact lenses in a sterile solution, providing a simple, easy to use, holder that facilitates use and cleaning operation. It is a further general object of the second aspect of the present invention to provide an improved contact lens holder for bathing! storing! cleaning contact lenses that provides for enhanced cleaning efficacy.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided an eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for applying an eyewash solution to a user's eye and having a top opening with a rim to press against the margin of the orbit of the user's eye, wherein the top opening is covered by a sealing cover that is adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening and wherein the bath accommodates a dose of the eyewash solution therein held in within the bath by the sealing cover film until required for use. The cover preferably is a sheet of aluminium or of a metallised laminate of paper and PET or other reinforced sheet. Preferably the cover is adhered in place.

Particularly preferably the bath has a resiliently flexible or movable part or bellows whereby the bath can be operated in the manner of a suction cup to adhere to the user's face by suction. Preferably the flexible part resiliently flexes and preferably it has a concertina form to operate as a bellows. The flexible or movable part or bellows is preferably integral to the bath and preferably is part of the walls and! or floor of the bath. Particularly preferably the flexible or movable part is a bellows in the floor of the bath extending up end walls of the bath whereby gripping and pinching sidewalls of the bath near the floor compresses the bellows and loosening the pinch allows the bellows to resiliently expand.

Alternatively, but much less preferably, the flexible or movable part or bellows may be external to the bath but linked to it to be able to create a partial vacuum! suction force within the bath against the user's face and that pulls the bath closer against the user's face. In the later case the movable part external to the bath might comprise a plunger within an external chamber -eg like a syringe -whereby retracting the plunger from the chamber draws air from within the bath.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for holding a contact lens in a sterile cleaning solution the bath having a top opening, wherein the top opening is covered by a sealing cover film that is adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening and wherein the bath accommodates a volume of the sterile cleaning solution therein held within the bath by the sealing cover film until required for use.

From the above it will be appreciated that the present invention has numerous considerable benefits over the various known prior art devices.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be more particularly described, solely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side elevation view of the first preferred embodiment of bath, an eyewash cup! bath; Figure 2 is an end elevation view of the eye wash cup of the first preferred embodiment showing the concertina folds of the bellows part of the Figure 3 is a detail view of the base of the eye wash cup from below, showing the concertina folds from below; and Figure 4 is a side elevation view of a preferred embodiment of the bath, as a contact lens holder and cleaner.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

The illustrated first preferred embodiment of bath in Figures 1 to 3 is an eyewash cup! bath 1 for applying an eyewash solution to a user's eye. It has an approximately elliptical shape as viewed in plan from above and has a full length is and full width top opening la with a flat rim 2 to press against the margin of the orbit of the user's eye. The eyewash cup! bath 1 The top opening la is covered by a sealing cover 3 that is adhered to the flat rim 2 and adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening la. The bath 1 is pre-filled with a suitable single use dose, eg a volume of lOmI, of the eyewash solution which is held ready within the bath sealed in by the sealing cover 3 until the time that the bath is required for use. The sealing cover 3 is exemplified as being a sheet of aluminium or of a metallised laminate of paper and PET or other reinforced sheet and that is adhered in place by adhesive or by heat sealing to the rim 2. When it is needed for use it is ready to use immediately. The user need only peel away the cover 3 to use it and does not have to scout around for a supply of solution nor carefully pour a supply in appropriate measure into the bath. The needed measure is already there.

The bath 1 has a floor ib, a pair of upstanding opposing sidewalls ic linked by a pair of upstanding opposing outwardly convex bowed end walls 1 d that curve to meet the sidewalls ic. The sidewalls ic are notably in-curved! concave le at

S

their lower end as viewed in the end elevation of the bath (Figure 2) providing a profile that is easy for the user to grip and also pinch between thumb and fore fingers. The floor lb and walls lc, ld of the bath are configured to function as bellows whereby the bath can be operated in the manner of a suction cup to adhere to the user's face by suction when the user's pinch is relieved.

The floor lb and end walls id have folds if in them that define a concertina form that resiliently flexes to operate as a bellows. The bellows is thus integral to the bath 1. The folds in the floor lb of the bath extending up the end walls i d of the bath compress together when the user grips and pinches the lower sidewalls lb of the bath as they begin to apply the bath to their eye while their head is tilted to face downwardly onto the bath. The user then loosens the pinch a bit and the folds resiliently expand apart again, creating a partial vacuum that sucks the bath 1 sealingly onto the user's face so that as the user straightens up to allow the solution to drench their eye the solution will not seep from the bath 1 onto their cheek and be wasted but rather is held where it is needed, right against the eye, until the eye-washing has been appropriately completed and the user can then just increase the pinch again and the cup releases suction and can now drop way from the eye.

Turning now to Figure 4, this shows a preferred embodiment of the bath as adapted for holding and cleaning contact lenses. In this contact lens holder! cleaner there are two linked baths ii', each for holding and cleaning a respective one of a pair of contact lenses. In a variant of the contact lens holder! cleaner there might be one bath split into two compartments alongside or stacked above each other. The bath may thus comprise one or more compartments, one compartment for each lens. Additionally or alternatively there may be a pair of baths and each have one or more compartments.

Each bath 1, 1' has a substantially circular or an approximately elliptical shape as viewed in plan from above and has a full length and full width top opening la with a flat rim 2. The top opening la is covered by a sealing cover 3 that is adhered to the flat rim 2 and adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening ia. The bath 1 is pre-filled with a suitable single use dose, eg a volume of lOmI, of contact lens cleaning solution which is held ready within the bath sealed in by the sealing cover 3 until the time that the bath is required for use. The sealing cover 3 is exemplified as being a sheet of aluminium or of a metallised laminate of paper and PET or other reinforced sheet and that is adhered in place by adhesive or by heat sealing to the rim 2. When it is needed for use it is ready to use immediately. The user need only peel away the cover 3 to use it and does not have to scout around for a supply of solution nor carefully pour a supply in appropriate measure into the bath.

The needed measure is already there.

The bath 1 has a floor lb, a pair of upstanding opposing sidewalls ic linked by a pair of upstanding opposing outwardly convex bowed end walls 1 d that curve to meet the sidewalls ic or in the case of circular baths the sidewalls ic and end walls id are indistinguishable, the bath being substantially circular as viewed in plan from above. The floor! base of each bath 1, 1 of the contact lens holder! cleaner has a set of ridges 4 formed in it facing up into the liquid! solution held within the bath. The ridges 4 reach up to a level substantially below the ledge 5 where the contact lens rests in use. The cover sheet could be re-sealable but preferably a moulded press-fit twin-covering cap 6 is provided to firmly seal closed the top opening 1 a of the pair of baths 1, 1' when each contact lens has been placed into its respective bath 1, 1'. The cap 6 may be tethered to the baths 1, 1' by a tether strap 7, that as shown here has a ring 7a to fit around one of the baths 1 and engage in an annular groove 7b on the bath 1.

The ridges 4 in the base! floor lb of the bath serve as turbulators that cause turbulence and induce wave! ripple formation within the body of liquid in the bath when the contact lens holder! cleaner is agitated. This will help to gently clean the lens without any risk of damage to the lens. The wave action can be induced by manually applying a gentle shake to the contact lens holder! cleaner or by putting the contact lens holder! cleaner alongside or preferably on top of a vibrating device, suitably on top of a commonplace device such as a mobile phone that is set to operate on vibration mode and while both are positioned in a secure location where the device cannot dislodge the contact lens holder! cleaner when vibrating.

Claims

Claims 1. An eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for applying an eyewash solution to a user's eye and having a top opening with a rim to press against the margin of the orbit of the user's eye, wherein the top opening is covered by a sealing cover that is adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening and wherein the bath accommodates a dose of the eyewash solution therein held in within the bath by the sealing cover until required for use.
2. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 1, wherein the bath has a flexible or movable part or bellows whereby the bath can be operated in the manner of a suction cup to adhere to the user's face by suction in use.
3. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 2, wherein the bath has a flexible part that resiliently flexes.
4. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 3, wherein the resiliently flexible part has a concertina form to operate as a bellows.
5. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein the flexible or movable part or bellows is integral to the bath and part of the walls and! or floor of the bath.
6. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 5, wherein the flexible or movable part is a bellows in the floor of the bath whereby gripping and pinching the sidewalls of the bath near the floor compresses the bellows and loosening the pinch allows the bellows to resiliently expand.
7. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 2, 3 or 4, wherein the flexible or movable part or bellows is external to the bath but linked to it to be able to create a partial vacuum! suction force within the bath against the user's face and that pulls the bath closer against the user's face.
8. An eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for applying an eyewash solution to a user's eye and having a top opening with a rim to press against the margin of the orbit of the user's eye, wherein the bath has a flexible orSmovable part or bellows whereby the bath can be operated in the manner of a suction cup to adhere to the user's face by suction in use.
9. An eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for holding a contact lens in a sterile cleaning solution in the bath, the bath having a top opening, wherein the top opening is covered by a sealing cover that is adapted to be peeled away to uncover the opening and wherein the bath accommodates a volume of the sterile cleaning solution therein held within the bath by the sealing cover until required for use.
10. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 9 comprising a pair of baths linked together, one for each of a pair of contact lenses, or comprises a bath of multiple compartments.
11. An eye-care accessory as claimed in claim 9 or 10, wherein the bath has ridges in the floor whereby when shaken by the user or by a device the ridges will cause the solution within the bath to become turbulent or form ripples! is waves to enhance cleaning of the contact lens.
12. An eye-care accessory that comprises a bath for holding a contact lens in a sterile cleaning solution in the bath, the bath having a top opening, wherein the bath has ridges in the floor whereby when shaken by the user or by a device the ridges will cause the solution within the bath to become turbulent or form ripples! waves to enhance cleaning of the contact lens.
13. An eye-care accessory substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 or with reference to Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.