Tearing eyes: This is what Doctor-medic Bányai says about the causes

If your eyes are regularly watering and burning, there can be several causes. There are three main mechanisms:

• The first concerns the functional disorder of the tear film or its composition. These include, for example, disorders of the function of the peripheral eyelid glands. 
• The second involves the anatomical changes of the tear ducts, for example, the blockage of the tear ducts.
• The third concerns the overproduction of tear fluid. This is often caused by irritation of the conjunctiva and cornea. 

What can be the trigger?

The triggers for watery eyes are manifold. Some are relatively harmless, others are not.

One possible cause of your watery eyes may be age-related changes. Both hormones in menopause and other signs of aging can lead to a functional disturbance of the tear film.

Like all muscles and all tissue, the muscles in the eye and the surrounding connective tissue become weaker in old age. This can limit the function and stability of the eyelid and thus an important component of the tear distribution on the eye. This in turn leads to watery eyes. Are you also more prone to eye twitching?

Allergies can also be a trigger for watery eyes.

They could be allergic to pet dander, house dust, mites, or certain grasses and plants. The latter is often the cause if you only have watery eyes outside. Food allergies can also cause such suffering.

If you only have one watery eye, it is obvious that you have a foreign body in your eye. This could be an insect, or just an eyelash.

As paradoxical as it sounds, dry eyes can also be a trigger for your watery eyes. The causes of dry eyes are also varied. In addition to harmless reasons such as the age-related or hormonal decrease in tear fluid mentioned above, there are various environmental factors that also affect the dryness of your eyes.

These include, among other things, room ventilation (heating air, dry room air) or the amount of pollutants in the air outside of closed rooms. Day-to-day screen work is also a common influencing factor. In technical language, dry eyes are referred to as Sicca syndrome.

In addition to these more harmless triggers of watery eyes, there are also a number of dangerous and serious eye diseases that result in watery or itchy eyes. For example, infections in and around the eye can be triggers.

What can I do about watery eyes?

If the causes of your watery eyes are not found in an illness, there are several ways for you to reduce or avoid the problem altogether:

• Ventilate rooms well
• Avoid draughts and air conditioners
• Quit smoking
• Less time in front of the screen
• Try to blink more often
• Drink plenty of water
• Ensure sufficient sleep (dark circles) – shadows in the eyes

Of course, as for almost every problem, there are some tools for this one as well. However, these only help if the trigger for your watery eyes is dry eyes. In this case, it may help to apply moisturizing eye drops regularly to give you relief.

Do I have to go to the ophthalmologist?

For regularly watery eyes, the cause of which cannot be determined yourself, you should definitely consult an ophthalmologist to rule out serious diseases as the cause.

Is the cataract to blame for my watery eyes?

A connection between cataracts and watery eyes is not known.

The symptoms through which cataract manifests itself can vary in severity. The most common cataract symptoms include severe glare, haze, double vision, faded colors, and loss of contrast. Particularly noticeable is also the deterioration of perception in general, as well as the deterioration of vision near and far.

Treating cataracts through eye lasers

Cataract, the specialist name for “cataract”, can be treated by cataract surgery.

Since cataracts are a clouding of the lens of the eye, they cannot be treated with lasers using pure eyes. The lens must be replaced with an artificial lens after removal.

This procedure is an operation that is usually performed under local anesthesia (drops in the eye). The entire operation takes about 10-15 minutes per eye.

Nowadays, it is possible to use a femtosecond laser instead of manual incision for the surgeon. This allows the front capsule to be opened and the lens to be disassembled. This modern method is also used at the Bányai eye centre in Karlsruhe and Stuttgart.

What are the advantages of laser-assisted surgery? The advantages here lie in the careful handling of the surrounding tissue and in the possibility of working more precisely.