Remedies for Watery Eyes

Video Transcript

"My name's Doctor Alan Watson. I'm an ophthalmologist in Saint Joseph, Missouri and we're here today to talk about eye problems. Some watery eye may be due to a problem with the tear film. There's three components of the tear film we talked about earlier and some patients that are actually have a dry eye will perceive it as a watery eye because there's the lacrimal gland is a gland up underneath the eyelid and the orbital rim and that produces the watery component to tears. And if there's an irritant to the eye, the lacrimal gland will kick in and start pumping the aqueous component across the tear. People with a lipid layer meibomian type dysfunction will also frequently develop a watery eye and that's because the oily component is breaking down and they're getting little dry spots on the cornea so the lacrimal gland kicks in to kind of flush the eye, because there's a foreign body sensation. And so those patients actually may benefit by taking medications to help with the oily layer of the lid. Things that will help with that are such as hot compresses, taking hot water from the tap, running it over a washcloth, getting it hot and putting that on the eye, will actually melt some of that lipid component to the lid, sort of like when your mom used to dip some Crisco out of the can and heat it up on the stove, it makes it less viscus and more fluidy and so that will cause you to be able to cook your French fries or whatever. But by decreasing the viscosity of the oily component, those patients that are watery eye, is improved just by using a hot compress. This has been Doctor Alan Watson, ophthalmologist in Saint Joseph, Missouri discussing different eye problems and the treatment of different eye problems with you."