﻿In this video, I'm going to be talking about one
of those really annoying conditions that people often report, and that is a watery eye.
Hey everybody and welcome to Martin Eye Tips
with me, optometrist Martin Oguzie
and of course, this channel is all about helping you guys to see better,
see more comfortably and to be less anxious about your eyes.
Now, if you're new to the channel or you
haven't done so before, please hit the subscribe button,
hit that notification bell as well
so you get reminded every time upload a brand new video to the channel. In this
video, I'm going to attempt to rank the courses of watery eyes from number five,
the least common cause all the way down to number one, the most common cause,
so stick around for that. Now straight to
number five, is the least common cause
of a watery eye, and that is actually a problem with the lacrimal gland.
Now, the lacrimal gland is the watery
gland that releases the actual watery part of your tears.
Now, the reason that this is one of the least common causes of watery eyes
is because the most common issue where the lacrimal gland causing it to water more would
be things like rare tumours that might impact this gland,
causing it to be in a constant state of excitation and releasing tears.
These tears, they would constantly stream into your eye and run down your face.
Now, this is something that just doesn't really happen very often
and that's great news because this is not
really a condition that anybody would really want to have.
Number four is a completely blocked tear duct.
Now we have tear ducts that help our tears to drain out a bit like plumbing
in the eyes, where your tears would flow down and flow into the nasal passage.
If you're experiencing complete blockage of the tear duct, then you are going to be
experiencing constant streaming of your tears, whether you're indoors or outdoors.
The issue here is just that there's no outlet for the tears to flow out.
Number three is a partial blockage of your tear duct.
Now, this is by far a lot more of a common
situation that we come across with people on a day to day basis
and the reason for this is just that it's actually quite a normal part of ageing
for the drainage duct to kind of narrow as we get older.
The problem here is that if you are
in a situation where your eyes would normally water more as a protective
mechanism, such as when you're out in the wind, then the extra tears that are
produced just kind of floods the drainage system so you tear your drainage can't
keep up with this extra tear that are produced.
So you tend to find then that in these
situations, like when you are out in the wind or
fan blowing your face or in a cold environment, then your tears will flow
down your face and you have problems with your eyes watering in that situation,
however, you may then find them when your indoors or when there is not such a strong
stimula for your eyes to water that you don't have as many problems with your eyes
streaming and the tears kind of flowing down your face in that situation.
Number two is irritation of the eyes, and this would include irritants such as
pollen that might cause your eyes to water if you're allergic to pollen,
but also it might include having
a misdirected eyelash going into your eyes or some other kind of irritant that is
stuck on the surface of the eye, causing your eyes to water
and this can sometimes be very small
eyelid lesions or styes that rub against your eyes as well and feel gritty.
So all of these things can stimulate your
eyes to water and more, and in such a way that it really kind
of becomes a constant burden and causes a tear to stream down your eyes.
In number one, probably the most common
cause of a watery eye is actually dry eyes.
Now, for many people, this sounds really counter-intuitive,
doesn't really make sense, but the way I often explain it to people is
for them to think about the fact that with dry eyes,
you may start to get dry patches forming on your eyes, much in the way that it
would do if you had a staring competition with somebody and you keeping your eyes
open as wide as you can for as long as you can,
after a while, you'll notice that your eyes will start to stink and that's
the formation of the dry patches on your eyes
and then you'll start to find that your
eyes water as well, and that watering is a reflex protective
mechanism where your eyes try to flood the eyes with water to try and fill
in the gaps of the dry patches that are forming your eyes
and this then leads to your eyes
over-watering and tears streaming down your face.
Now, the great news is that there aren't very many sinister causes of watery eyes,
and many of these conditions that we highlighted today can be dealt
with and treated by your optometrist or your eye care professional.
So if you are experiencing watery eyes,
then don't be overly worried about it, but do go and get professional help,
and they can identify which of these five problems may be going in your situation.
Now, let me know in the comment section
below whether you are going through watery eyes right now or whether it's something
that you've had before and how you dealt with it.
So thank you so much for watching guys,
and look forward to catching you all in the next video.
Take care.