There can be a number of causes of watering from the eye. Medical conditions causing excessive watering are most common, like eye infection or allergies. However, there are certain conditions that are rarer which may require careful examination and investigation.Normal tears produced are drained down from a duct that leads from the eye to the nose. This drainage passage may get blocked causing excess tears to fall down the cheek. In long-standing cases, these accumulated tears may get infected resulting in discharge.
Depending on the extent of the blockage, different procedures may be done to overcome the blockage some of which are very simple and some that are more complex.
You may either need syringing and probing to manually overcome the obstruction or a three-snip procedure to increase the size of the duct opening. In chronic cases, with larger duct obstructions, you may require an extensive procedure called DCR (dacryocystorhinostomy) performed under general anesthesia. This involves making a surgical bypass channel for the tears to flow down into the nose. The only tell-tale sign of the surgery is a small incision scar on the inner side of the nose (next to the eye), which gradually fades over time.
Author Dr. S. Aisha Bokhari
Dr. S. Aisha Bokhari is a Consultant Ophthalmologist and Anterior segment & Oculoplastic surgeon at The Eye Center & South City Hospital, Karachi. She has expertise in Pediatric and Adult ophthalmology including cataract surgery, strabismus (squint) surgery, oculoplastics, aesthetic or cosmetic surgery and trauma repair. She is exceptionally well trained in a vast array of micro surgical ocular procedures, including phacoemulsification, cornea and refractive surgery and other anterior segment surgeries.With a special interest in oculoplastics, she has clinical expertise in peri-ocular cosmesis, including Botox injections for upper face conditions such as frown lines, crows feet, hemifacial spasms.Dr. Bokhari holds a Fellowship in Ophthalmology from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow (United Kingdom).
To book an appointment with Dr. Aisha Bokharo or any of our eye specialists please contact us at 0302 8291799, 0304 1119544, 0300 8933377, 03000822218, 021 35836713 or contact us at our website at www.surgicaleyecenter.org