My eyes will randomly water (one at a time) Any suggestions on stopping this?!

My eyes will randomly water (one at a time) Any suggestions on stopping this?

In the past 18 months or so, my eyes will sometimes start watering uncontrollably -- but usually only one at a time. My eye swells and the coinciding side of my sinuses gets all stuffy. I've tried to find a pattern here, tried changing contact brands, makeup brands, hair product brands, and nothing seems to work. The only common thing is that I'm usually very tired when it happens. Someone recommended allergy eye drops but they say not to use with contact lenses, and I have mine in all hours of the day that I'm not sleeping, as my glasses give me a headache and can't get new ones for quite a while. Please help!

It's difficult to say without examining you but it sounds to me like you are having problems with poor tear quality. Some people call it "dry eye". I know it sounds counter intuitive. Patients tell me "but doc, I said I've got too many tears. My eyes are watering too much.

Let's talk about dry eye. First, dry eye is one of the most common contact lens related compaints I hear every day in my practice. Also, from your avatar it appears you are female and females (especially 40 and older) tend to have a higher incidence of dry eye.

Here's the way it works. Contact lenses are basically glorified sponges. They soak up every bit of water they come in contact with until they are fully hydrated. Early in the day patients tend to produce more tears and the eye can stay ahead of the lenses fluid demands so the lens stays fully hydrated and there is plenty of excess tears available to lubricate the eye tissues. Now as the day goes on and you become more fatigued, tear production tends to decrease. This can be complicated by activities you perform throughout the day, such as computer work, that tend to further dry the eye through evaporation.

Now, when tears start lagging behind, the lens really doesn't care whether your eye needs tears for lubrication. It's going to take every drop it needs to hydrate itself. When the brain senses that the eye has become dry it then sends a signal to your lacrimal glands to produce REFLEX tearing. This is the same type tearing that occurs then you get something in your eye. Its purpose is to either flush out a foreign body or quickly increase fluid production so the eye can wet itself. This tearing goes on for a few minutes or so. The excess tears drain out of your eye into the back of you nose through your tear ducts in your eyelids which causes your nose and sinuses to feel all stuffy. Pretty soon after the tearing starts the brain senses that the dryness problem has been dealt with so it shuts off the reflex tearing. The eye then begins to go back to a normal tearing pattern which eventually will result in a tear deficit just as earlier and the whole cycle repeats itself. It can vary from one eye to the other because each eye has its own separate tear production.

There are really four options you have.

Stop wearing contact lenses.

Regularly (probably every 30 minutes or so) use lens rewetting drops to maintain adequate tear quality.

Have your doctor prescribe a drug called Restasis. It is the only drug available that can improve your own tear production.

Have your doctor put small plugs (they are called punctal plugs) in the tear drainage ducts of your eyelids to minimize the amount of tears you lose through the drainage system so as to hopefully maintain adequate tear supply in your tear film.

That's what I'm thinking is going on. Hope this helped. But really to know for sure you need to go see your eye doctor.