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When you look around the room, what do you see? Do you see everything clearly, or are there spots in your visual field that are a bit blurry or fuzzy? If your answer is the latter, you need to see an optometrist for an assessment. In fact, it is a good idea to see an optometrist once a year whether or not you are actually noticing any changes to your vision. Optometrists offer vital services for us all. If you're seeking a better understanding of those services, then we invite you to read the articles provided on this blog, which is all about optometrists and their work.

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What Do You See?

Why Are Your Tears Sticky Or Filmy?

Harry Garcia

Most people experience some tears on a daily basis, even if they don't notice it. The eyes typically rinse themselves with tears on a regular basis to maintain moisture, but sometimes things go awry with this process. If you've noticed that your eyes seem to have a faint film over them that makes it a little hard to see, or that your tears seem to be sticky or viscous, chances are you have a condition that needs medical attention. Here's what you should know about it.

Mucus Production

The reason why your tears seem to be sticky and vicious is your tear ducts are producing mucus. A small amount of mucus is produced normally on a daily basis, just like it is in your throat and nasal passageways. However, if the ratio of mucus to normal tears is abnormal, it can cause a film to remain on the surface of your eye, blurring your vision. In addition, it can make the tears that you rub out of your eyes feel sticky.

Cause

While having sticky tears probably isn't the most annoying thing you've gone through, if it's getting in the way of you seeing clearly, that's a potential danger. However, the bigger problem is what's likely causing this condition.

More often than not, when this happens, it indicates that the tear duct is swollen, inflamed, or infected. Tear ducts naturally act as a drainage system so that excess tears go out of your eyes and down your nasal passageway. But when the tear duct is damaged or swollen, regardless of the reason why, it can't perform this job as well or at all, depending on the severity.

Mucus is often also produced in higher quantities when the body is fighting an infection. In either case, this condition is unlikely to clear up on its own.

Help

There are a few things you can do to tackle this problem.

While it's not a cure, while you're struggling with the symptoms you can try rinsing your eyes out with eye drops or water. This will help to remove the surface film on the eye that's keeping you from seeing clearly. However, it may only be a temporary solution, and it's not a cure.

In addition, you can try using a warm compress to help reduce inflammation in the tear duct. But again, this is likely to only provide temporary relief.

While these are good stopgap measures while you wait to get help, the ultimate goal here is to see an eye doctor. They can easily diagnose what's going on with your tear ducts and prescribe medication to bring down the inflammation and treat any infection you might have. This is important for the health of your eyes and your ability to see clearly, so don't put off this step.

If you notice your tears seem to be sticky or filmy, contact your local eye doctor today.


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