Watering eyes
Tears pool along the lower lid and spill over, vision clouds and clears again, there is always a tissue in your pocket, and by evening the skin under the eye…
On this page
- Too many tears, or nowhere for them to go
- The paradox: eyes water most often because they are dry
- Tears standing in the eye: a blocked drainage route
- Lids that make the eye cry
- Allergy, infection and medicines
- When a baby's eyes water
- What must not be missed
- What you can do yourself, and what not to do
- Online consultation
Medicines commonly prescribed for Watering eyes
For informational purposes only. Always consult a doctor before taking any medication.
Dosage form: EYE DROP, 3.2 mg/mlActive substance: artificial tears and other indifferent preparationsManufacturer: Bausch & Lomb S.A.Prescription not requiredDosage form: EYEDROP, 2 mg sodium carboxymethylcelluloseActive substance: artificial tears and other indifferent preparationsManufacturer: Abbvie Spain, S.L.U.Prescription not requiredDosage form: EYEDROP, 2 mg/1 packageActive substance: artificial tears and other indifferent preparationsManufacturer: Teva Pharma S.L.U.Prescription not required
Tears pool along the lower lid and spill over, vision clouds and clears again, there is always a tissue in your pocket, and by evening the skin under the eye is red from wiping. Most people with this complaint look for something that will dry the eye up, and almost always pick the wrong thing. The useful question is not about the tears but about one thing: are there too many of them, or is there nowhere for them to drain? The answer is often a surprise, because the commonest reason for a wet eye is called dryness.
Too many tears, or nowhere for them to go
Tears are made under the outer rim of the eye socket, spread across the eye when you blink, and leave through two tiny openings at the inner corner, down a duct into the nose. That is why crying makes your nose run. The system fails in two different ways, and they need different things.
- More tears are made than the duct can carry away. This is a response to irritation, and the irritant can be anything from wind to the dry surface of your own eye.
- The amount of tears is normal but the drainage is not: the openings have narrowed, the duct is blocked, or the lid no longer sits snugly against the eye. The tears simply stand in the eye and run over the edge.
Some of this is not illness at all. An eye waters honestly in wind, in smoke, in a strong smell, from onions, in bright light. Cold both irritates the surface and narrows the outlet into the nose, which is why eyes stream outdoors in winter. The same goes for an eyelash or a piece of grit under the lid: while it is there the eye will pour without stopping, and rightly so, because that is how it washes the speck out.
The paradox: eyes water most often because they are dry
This is the first thing worth checking in an adult, and the last thing anyone suspects on their own, because the logic feels solid: if it is wet, it cannot be dry. In fact the surface of the eye is held by a thin film, and the film is held by a steady, very sparse trickle of tears. When the film breaks between blinks, the surface is irritated and a second, emergency flow switches on: a burst of watery tears, far too much to stay on the eye.
That closes a loop: dry, burst, tears spill without lubricating anything, dry again. The pattern is recognisable from the story: the eye streams in wind, in cold, while driving, after a long stretch at a screen, and between the bursts it stings and grates as though sand had got into it.
The practical point is that anything meant to dry the eye does the exact opposite here, while lubricating drops, warm compresses and lid hygiene help. The mechanism is set out in detail on the neighbouring page, "Dry eyes" — if this description sounds like yours, read it there.
Tears standing in the eye: a blocked drainage route
This is the other common pattern in adults, particularly after fifty: the drainage openings narrow with age, and the duct scars up after long-standing inflammation, injury or surgery in the nose. It gives itself away in details people rarely think to mention:
- tears stand in the eye constantly rather than in bursts, and spill in a warm, still room for no reason at all;
- usually one eye runs, not both;
- lashes stick together in the morning and mucus collects in the corner, because stagnant tears wash poorly;
- pressing on the inner corner brings a drop of cloudy fluid out of the opening;
- from time to time the eye reddens and starts to discharge, because anything that stagnates eventually becomes infected.
Drainage is tested by flushing the duct, which takes a few minutes at an eye specialist's appointment. It is reopened by probing or a small operation, and nothing else works: drops do nothing whatever to a closed duct.
Lids that make the eye cry
Tears do not drain by themselves. Blinking pumps them along, and for that the lid has to sit tightly against the eye along its whole length.
- The lid turning outwards. The lower lid falls away from the eye and sags, the drainage opening no longer faces the tear film, and tears run over the edge. Commoner in older people, and it follows injuries, scars and lid surgery.
- The lid turning inwards. The lid margin rolls in and the lashes rub the surface of the eye. Watering comes with grittiness, redness and pain, and lashes scraping the cornea leave grazes that can become infected.
- A lash growing towards the eye. One misdirected lash is enough to keep an eye streaming. Plucking it works briefly, but it usually grows back, so this belongs with a doctor rather than with a pair of tweezers at home.
- Blepharitis and blocked lid margin glands. Lid edges redden and thicken, there are crusts on the lashes in the morning, and the eye alternates between watering and stinging: the tears lose their oily part and evaporate before they have lubricated anything.
- A lid that does not close fully — with weakness of one side of the face, for instance after facial nerve palsy. Blinking no longer pumps the tears away and the surface also dries out, so that eye needs protection or the cornea suffers.
Allergy, infection and medicines
In allergy the main complaint is not tears but itching: you want to rub your eyes, they redden, the lids puff up, both run at once, and the nose is blocked and sneezing alongside. There is usually a link to a season, to a house with a cat, to cleaning. Antihistamine treatment helps here, not "drying".
With an infection of the lining the eye does not only water but reddens across the white, and the lashes glue shut overnight: viral discharge is watery and the second eye follows in a day or two, bacterial discharge is thick and yellowish. Remember watering with a common cold, too — swelling inside the nose blocks the outlet, and the eyes run simply because the tears have nowhere to go.
One cause that rarely comes to mind is treatment itself. Watering is a side effect of some anticancer drugs, of radioactive iodine treatment, and of some glaucoma drops. Never stop prescribed treatment on your own, but do mention this to the doctor who prescribed it.
When a baby's eyes water
In newborns the tear duct is often not fully open yet, and this is the ordinary reason for a wet eye in the first months. It looks like this: from the first weeks one or both eyes sit full of tears, lashes stick in the morning, mucus collects in the corner — but the baby is settled, does not mind light, and the white of the eye stays white.
In the great majority of babies this clears on its own during the first year of life, with no treatment at all. While it clears, small things help: wipe the discharge away with a clean cloth moistened with boiled water, using a fresh one each time. Massaging over the tear sac does speed things up, but it has a technique and a direction, and it should only be done the way a doctor has shown you in person — this is not learned from a description online, and clumsy hands can do harm.
Show the baby to a doctor if the lids redden and swell, if a tender bulge appears at the inner corner, if there is a fever, and also if the eye screws up against light, looks larger than the other, or the cornea looks cloudy: that last combination is not about the duct but about raised pressure inside the eye, which is rare but serious. Watering that has not settled by the first birthday is a reason to plan probing rather than to keep waiting.
What must not be missed
Watering by itself does not threaten sight. The danger is what can hide behind it, and these signs call for an examination rather than drops:
- Pus together with a tender swelling at the inner corner of the eye, towards the nose. The skin over it is red and hot, it hurts to touch, and there may be a fever. This is an infected, stagnant tear sac, and a doctor is needed the same day: an abscess in that spot sits dangerously close to the eye socket. Do not warm it, squeeze it or treat it with home poultices.
- Watering with pain inside the eye, discomfort in light and reduced vision, especially if the redness forms a ring around the iris rather than spreading over the white: that is how inflammation of the cornea and the deeper structures looks, and it needs to be seen straight away.
- A one-sided watering eye in an adult in which blood appears, or a bloodstained discharge from the nose on the same side, all the more so if a firm lump can be felt at the inner corner: rarely, a tumour of the tear sac lies behind that combination.
- Injury to the eye, or metal filings, glass, lime or any chemical getting into it. With a chemical, rinse the eye with clean water for at least a quarter of an hour and call an ambulance on the single European number 112.
- Sudden pain, rainbow haloes around lights, a hard eyeball, nausea and headache on the same side — a possible attack of raised pressure inside the eye, which needs help within hours.
- Any pain, redness or blurring in someone who wears contact lenses: take the lens out and be seen the same day.
What you can do yourself, and what not to do
Before the appointment, this is what works: shield the eyes from wind with glasses, turn the flow from air conditioning and car vents away from your face, take screen breaks and blink fully rather than halfway. For crusts and stuck lashes, a warm compress for five to ten minutes and gentle cleaning of the lid margin, daily and for at least a month — it does not work faster than that. A speck is washed out with clean water and frequent blinking; if it will not come out, is embedded, or is a metal fragment, stop there and get help.
And this only draws the story out:
- Decongestant drops that "take the redness out". They lubricate nothing and treat nothing: the redness goes for an hour, then the vessels answer by widening further, the eye looks worse than before, and you reach for the bottle more often.
- Antibiotic or steroid drops left over from last time. Steroid drops used without an examination raise the pressure inside the eye and delay healing of the surface.
- Rinsing with tea, chamomile or home-made solutions: leftover tea leaves and the wrong concentration irritate more than they soothe, and it is easy to introduce an infection yourself.
- Rubbing the eyes: a second of relief, a damaged surface, and with constant rubbing a change in the shape of the cornea.
- Squeezing the swelling at the inner corner, or putting warm compresses on it.
- Waiting for months for it to pass if the eye runs constantly and gets in the way of reading, driving and working: the cause here is nearly always mechanical, and one appointment finds it.
Online consultation
A conversation settles more of this than you would expect: from your description an Oladoctor doctor can separate too many tears from poor drainage, and that is already half the answer. They will ask whether it comes in bursts or stands in the eye all the time, one eye or both, what mornings are like, whether there is itching, what you take and what you put in your eyes — and then explain what to expect: lubricating drops and lid hygiene, or a drainage check with an eye specialist. Parents of a baby will hear when probing is due and when waiting is right. Most importantly, the doctor will see whether your description contains signs that need an examination the same day.
This material is for information only and does not replace medical advice.
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