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Symptoms, Their Causes & Cures: Eye Watering

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Eye Watering

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* Your eyes water persistently for more than two days and do not respond to home remedies.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Watery eyes are too much of a good thing. Lubricating tears bathe your eyeballs each time you blink, but an irritation involving your eye or head can turn that bath into a flood. Eyes can well up from a headache, a sinus infection, smoke, wind, an eyelash grazing your eyeball, a problem with your contact lens or overworking your eyes at the computer.

You can also get teary-eyed from eating tongue-torching chili or stubbing your toe on the sidewalk. "Excessive tears are part of a nervous system reflex triggered by various assaults to the body," says Christopher Rapuano, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. If you've scorched your tongue or scraped your toe, he says, your eyes tear up as part of your body's pain response to injury. There's some research to suggest that these tears may even help speed the healing process in some way.

Excessive tears—along with redness and itchiness—are also classic signs of an allergy. If you're allergic to cats, for example, and walk into a room where cat dander permeates the air, your eyes may begin to flow like a broken dam. These are part of your body's response to the release of irritating chemicals known as histamines that are triggered by allergens.

Ironically enough, too few tears can also trigger watery eyes. When normal tear secretions dry up from age-related changes, the eye surface burns and feels scratchy. Like a fireman at a fire, your eye responds by turning on the hose.

Another age-related problem is that the lower eyelid can become lax as skin begins to sag. This pulls the tear drainage canal in the lower eyelid away from the eyeball. Without this natural exit, the tears well up and spill down the cheeks. (Lupus, a painful disease that affects the skin, can also cause the lower eyelids to droop and spill tears).

In addition, a blow to the eye or infection in the eyelid can swell the tissues of the inner eye, blocking the tear drainage canal.

Symptom Relief

Besides avoiding jalapeño peppers, here are some other ways to prevent watery eyes.

Try an antihistamine plus artificial tears. If allergies are triggering your tears, an oral antihistamine could stem the flow. Keep in mind that this is a secretion-drying medication, and could dry out your eye too much, says Dr. Rapuano. The rule: Use artificial tears every few hours when taking an antihistamine.

Wear head-hugging sunglasses. They'll keep eyes from crying in gusty weather. The best eye protectors have side shields with frames that hug the side of your head so that very little air sneaks in, says Dr. Rapuano.

Switch from contacts to glasses in dusty areas. Dust specks can get caught under a contact and scrape your eye, according to Scott MacRae, M.D., associate professor of ophthalmology at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine in Portland. Also, avoid wearing contacts on smoggy, high-pollen days. These irritants can trigger red, watery eyes even if you're not wearing contacts. Wearing them makes the problem even worse.

See your doctor about a blocked tear duct. If those suggestions don't cure a case of spillover tears, your problem may be a bit more serious: infected, swollen tissues blocking the tear canal. Your doctor can prescribe an antibiotic to help deflate the tissues and reopen the tears' natural exit route. If this doesn't do the trick, your ophthalmologist can surgically dilate the opening in a simple office procedure.

See also Eye Redness

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