Watery eyes can be a frustrating and uncomfortable experience. Fortunately, there are some at-home steps to help stop watery eyes at home, including using artificial tears, allergy eye drops, or medicated eye drops prescribed by your eye doctor.
Watery eyes can make your day-to-day activities more challenging. If you have concerns or questions about vision problems, visit your eye doctor. Your eye doctor can perform a comprehensive eye exam to determine the underlying cause and provide information on how you can prevent watery eyes.
What Causes Watery Eyes?
Watery eyes result from an overproduction of tears or when tears don’t drain properly from the eyes. Tears lubricate the eyes, protect them from debris and foreign materials, and provide a smooth eye surface.
Watery eyes usually resolve without any treatment. However, watering continues, it can occur for many reasons. Common causes of watery eyes can include the following:
- Allergies: Symptoms of an eye allergy can cause the eyes to become teary.
- Dry Eye Disease: Despite the name, dry eyes can cause excessive tearing. It happens because of an imbalanced tear film, and because the tears don’t function as they should, the eyes keep producing more but poor-quality tears.
- Infections: Conjunctivitis (pink eye), particularly viral conjunctivitis and conjunctivitis caused by irritants can produce watery eyes.
- Injuries: An injury to the eye can trigger blinking and watering to help flush a foreign body feeling in the eye.
- Medication: Certain medications, including chemotherapy drugs, epinephrine, echothiophate iodide and pilocarpine, can lead to more tears.
- Blocked Tear Ducts: In blocked tear ducts, the tears don’t drain away and build up in the eyes.
- Environmental Factors: Wind, smoke, dusty weather, and the sun can cause watery tears.
How to Stop Watery Eyes?
Your eye doctor can treat watery eyes based on the severity, underlying cause, and whether other symptoms, such as the following, are accompanying watery eyes:
- Irritation
- Blurry vision
- Redness
- Inflammation
- Crusty eyelids
When you visit your eye doctor, they may decide to monitor your eyes if symptoms are mild or also suggest at-home remedies to stop watery eyes, including the following:
- If allergies are to blame, over-the-counter allergy medicine or antihistamine eye drops may be effective. These drops reduce how much histamine your eyes produce in response to an allergen.
- If dry eye disease is the cause, you can use artificial tears or lubricating eye drops for mild symptoms. For moderate to severe dry eyes, your eye doctor may recommend prescription medication to help your eyes produce more quality tears.
- For watery eyes due to conjunctivitis, antibiotic eye drops help treat the infection, especially for bacterial conjunctivitis.
- For blocked tear ducts caused by a blockage in the meibomian glands that release the oil later in tears, at-home treatment involves using a warm compress over the eyes or gently massaging to unclog any blockages.
- For watery eyes caused by digital eye strain, there are several things you can do to reduce your symptoms, such as taking regular breaks and adopting proper workplace ergonomics.
- Wear protection eyewear or UV sunglasses to stop the eyes from watering in response to environmental factors.
Importance of Eye Exams for Watery Eyes
Regular eye exams are essential for maintaining healthy eyes and vision. If you have persistent or chronic watery eyes, an eye exam can catch and accurately diagnose problems early, making them easier to treat and manage.
Visit your eye doctor if you have excessive tearing with the following symptoms:
- Vision loss
- Injury, such as a scratched eye
- Chemicals in your eye
- Bleeding or discharge from the eye
- A foreign object stuck in your eye
- Eye pain
- Unexplained bruising around your eye
- Severe headache
Find Help for Watery Eyes
If you experience persistent or severe watery eyes, get advice from your eye doctor. With some prevention and proper care, you can keep your eyes healthy and vision comfortable. Regular eye exams can also contribute to maintaining healthy eyes and preventing eye conditions from worsening and affecting your vision.
For watery eyes that don’t resolve with time or you notice changes to your vision accompanied by watery eyes, book an appointment with Total Vision Sports Arena for a diagnosis and treatment relief plan.
