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Eye Care Archive (Expert Forum)
tearing eyes
Our Ask A Doctor Ophthalmology Forum is where you can post your question and receive a personal answer from physicians affiliated with the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
tearing eyes
by Sara E Lee, Feb 27, 2006 12:00AM
For the past 9 months I have had tearing eyes. I am talking about tears streaming down my cheeks. I have seen my eye doctor and two other eye doctors. Neither know really what is the cause. One thought it was related to rosacea, another thought my tear ducts were closed and the other did not know. I have been prescribed an antibotic (antibiotic), an antibotic (antibiotic) with steroids, steriods, patanol, and on and on. Only after using the steriods did I get some relief only in one eye. I have had my tear ducts probbed and that did nothing to help. I have changed contact lens, make up, shampoo and anything else I could think of that might be the cause. The tearing is dibilitatating. Can you help??
Doctor's Answer
by Forum-OD-MP, Feb 28, 2006 12:00AM
wow. there could be a bunch of reasons why a person would have constant tearing. here are the most common:
1) DRYNESS: this woulds weird, but a clinically dry/dessicated cornea will tear all the time. if the surface gets dry, the nerves send a signal to the brain to turn on the lacrimal gland. the problem is that that type of "emergency" tear response is not the "right" type of tears...they're too watery and evaporate too quickly, which starts the process over. the "fix" is to change the physiology of the tear film by either using oral omega-3 fish oil supplement or fish oil artificial tears like "SOOTHE". dryness is the number 1 reason for extra tearing.
2) blepharitis: chronic eyelid staph infection. i assume this is why someone put you on steroid/antibiotic combos. before you took those Rx eyedrops, were your EYELIDS red right behind your eyelashes?
3) punctum problems including stenosis and entropion/ectropion: stenosis is when the hole is too small. IMO this is a rare cause for dryness. entropion or ectropion is when the punctum or "hole" faces the wrong way. VERY COMMON especially in people over 40.
this is a tough case, but how long did you try the patanol? topical antihistamines are known to slow/stop the tear response of the lacrimal gland.
1) DRYNESS: this woulds weird, but a clinically dry/dessicated cornea will tear all the time. if the surface gets dry, the nerves send a signal to the brain to turn on the lacrimal gland. the problem is that that type of "emergency" tear response is not the "right" type of tears...they're too watery and evaporate too quickly, which starts the process over. the "fix" is to change the physiology of the tear film by either using oral omega-3 fish oil supplement or fish oil artificial tears like "SOOTHE". dryness is the number 1 reason for extra tearing.
2) blepharitis: chronic eyelid staph infection. i assume this is why someone put you on steroid/antibiotic combos. before you took those Rx eyedrops, were your EYELIDS red right behind your eyelashes?
3) punctum problems including stenosis and entropion/ectropion: stenosis is when the hole is too small. IMO this is a rare cause for dryness. entropion or ectropion is when the punctum or "hole" faces the wrong way. VERY COMMON especially in people over 40.
this is a tough case, but how long did you try the patanol? topical antihistamines are known to slow/stop the tear response of the lacrimal gland.
Member Comments
by roger701297, Apr 15, 2006 12:00AM
My eyes are always watery, I went to see a eye doctor last week and he check the eye canal and they were open and I still have the problem.Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
by migdalia215, May 21, 2008 12:07AM
A related discussion, Treatment to relieve dry eyes was started.
