What are the possible causes of watering eyes?
Making too many tears • Emotion can make you cry. • Anything that irritates the eye can cause you to make a lot of tears. The watering is a protective reflex to help clear irritants away from the eye. For example: • Chemical irritants such as onions, fumes, etc. • Infection of the front of the eye (infective conjunctivitis). • An allergy causing inflammation of the front of the eye (allergic conjunctivitis). • A small injury or scratch to the front of the eye, or a piece of dirt or grit which gets stuck in the eye. • Eyelashes that grow ‘inwards’ can irritate the front of the eye. This is called an entropion. (See separate leaflet called ‘Entropion’.) • Abnormalities of the tear film. For example, the lipid (fat) content of tears may not be right. The tear film may then not spread evenly across the front of the eye. This may cause patches of dryness to develop, which can become sore and make your eyes water. • Thyroid eye disease is an uncommon cause. Faulty drainage of tears • Tears m
