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Preventing contamination when giving eye drops centers on keeping the dropper sterile by avoiding any contact between the applicator tip and surfaces. The most effective practice is to never touch the tip to skin, eyelashes, the eye, or any other surface. When the tip touches a surface, bacteria can be transferred into the bottle and then into the eye with the next drop, increasing the risk of infection.

Other ideas have limited impact on contamination during administration. Keeping the eyes closed after applying the drop may help with comfort and reduce rubbing, but it doesn’t prevent contamination of the bottle or the eye. Wearing gloves isn’t typically required for standard eye-drop use and doesn’t address the bottle’s sterility. Storing the bottle in the refrigerator pertains to storage conditions for certain medications, not the act of preventing contamination during administration.

So, the best practice to prevent contamination is to keep the applicator tip from touching any surface at all times.