Almost daily, I hear patients ask me how their eyes can be dry when they water so much.
Eyes water because they are inflamed. Inflammation and irritation of the eyes can be caused by many things. It can happen if you are exposed to airborne chemicals (gasoline fumes or when you cut up an onion, for example). It can occur if you get something in your eye but it can also occur if your tear film is not protecting your eye adequately.
There are three layers to the tear film. They are:
1. The mucous layer
2. The water layer
3. The oil layer
If any one of these three layers is inadequate, your eye will not be protected from the environment as well as it needs to be; your eyes will become inflamed and they will water.
If your eyes water whenever the wind blows or when you go out in the bright sun you probably have tear deficiency or dry eye on some level. To help you, we first need to figure out which of the tear layers is the deficient layer and then we can prescribe a treatment.
Call us at 307-265-7008 to schedule a dry eye evaluation and ask to see Dr. Clark Jensen. There are many therapies that we didn’t have available to us just a few years ago. Even if you have not been helped in the past, the chances are good that we can help you solve your dry eye problem now.