It may seem contradictory, but your constantly watering eyes may be a sign of dry eye. Dry eye can cause your eyes to make so many tears that you experience wet eyes and tearing throughout your day. This is because your eyes produce more tears in an effort to replace those lost through a defective tear film or because your eye glands aren’t producing enough tears.
Tear Film
Your eyes are coated with an outer layer of tear film. The health of this tear film is very important for the lubrication and comfort of your eyes as well as for clarity of vision. With age, the protective tear film diminishes, leaving your eyes more exposed to the drying effects of air, wind and dust.
There are three layers making up your tear film. Damage to any one of these layers can lead to dry eye:
- Oily: this is the outer layer that provides smoothness to the tear surface
- Watery: this is the liquid layer that flushes out foreign particles from the eye
- Mucus: this is the inner layer that helps the watery layer stick to the eye, keeping the eye moist
Symptoms of Dry Eye
In addition to constantly watering eyes, with defective tear film you may also experience:
- Burning
- Stinging
- Itching
- Gritty feeling
- Light sensitivity
- Blurry vision
For many people, these symptoms are worse in the afternoon and evening. Wearing contact lenses is nearly impossible if you have dry eye.
If you are experiencing irritations of dry eye in Grand Rapids or Hibbing, our team at Bonner Eye Clinic offers dry eye testing to determine the root cause of your symptoms and multiple dry eye treatments to provide relief.
Explore Our Dry Eye Treatments
Explore our dry eye treatments.
We’d Love to Tell You More About Dry Eye
We invite you to schedule an eye exam so we can assess your vision for signs of dry eye so treatment can be administered. During your visit to our practice, you will learn why so many people trust our team to provide dry eye relief.
