About Watery Eyes
“Watery eyes” is a common description for the eye condition called epiphora. Watery eyes or excessive watering of the eyes can result in tears running over your eyelids and down your cheeks. Having enough tears is important for your eye health and vision but having too many tears can be annoying and troubling. Watery eyes or epiphora can be caused by one or both of two main eye problems. First, watery eyes can occur because you simply produce too many tears. Second, eye watering can occur because the tears you do produce just don’t drain properly. As odd as it may seem, one of the most common causes of producing too many tears is dry eyes. When you have a dry eye, your eyes can “overreact” and produce too much tear fluid due to the irritation.  Normally when we blink the eyelids “sweep” the tears across the eye’s surface, causing them to collect in the lower inner corner of the eye and then drain through a tiny opening called a “punctum” into the nasolacrimal canal and down into your nose. If the puncta are closed or the canals are blocked, the tears will simply remain in the inner corners of your eyes making them seem very watery.

Cause of Eye Watering
So why do we develop tear drainage problems or excessive tear production problems? There are many causes of watery eye and eye watering. These symptoms are pretty common in people who have dry eye syndrome, clogged tear ducts from infection of inflammation, conjunctivitis or “pink eye”, exposure to irritation from pollen, smog, smoke, excessive dust and chemical vapors, as well as foreign bodies, problems with your eyelids turning inward or outward, and corneal abrasions.

If you or someone you know is experiencing watery eyes and needs help for excessive eye watering, please call Baltimore Washington Eye Center at 800-495-3937 to schedule an appointment.