Inner eyelid burning and foreign body sensation in spite of tear overflow

[shanku]

All my tear ducts are currently closed and having excess tear which is overflowing thru the cheeks. In spite of that feel - inner eyelid burning and foreign body sensation; I recently had corneal erosion and had all tear ducts were closed to make it heal. Doc's say cornea has healed now. Earlier I only had lower cauteries on both eyes but never felt this way...I mean tear drops used to help last couple of years. But for last 1-2 months, tear drops did not help much. Now if I add tear drops on top of this tear overflow I still do not find relief. Only closing my eyes shut feels better. Any guess, what may be the possible reasons in my case??? Can worsening MGD glands cause it? or something else? Experts/Gurus, please advise. Thanks

[Margaret]

I'm interested to see if anyone has anything to tell us because my worst days are when I have that pain. It seems like the menthol burn I get that i think a lot of us get along the lash lines, but this pain that you are talking about I think seems to radiate under our lids along the inside lids and all over the eye ball. I dont' know how to fix it, I seem to have it for a 5 day period or so every three to four months. It's really difficult to do anything and I just seem to gut it out until it goes away. I do use cool compresses during this time but not much else. Hopefully someone here has the same issue and has found something that works!
Margaret

[Balash]

I have the same symptoms as yours. My doctor told me it's Giant Papillary Conjunctivitis GPC, because of contact lenses allergies.

[sazy123]

I have inner eyelid inflammation- soreness and eye surface burning. Burning is alleviated when closing eyes (dryness remains though). That is common with MGD.

It sounds like the closing of all four ducts is keeping inflammatory tears on the surface- and/or watering down what medium oil you do have in your tear film and making it thinner consistency creating a more exposed eye surface. You have MGD? which means you need more oil- not more water. For MGD, plugs etc don't usually help because an increase in the quantity of tears is not what's needed unless you have both aqueous deficiency and MGD. Plugs never helped me. The four closed ducts may be too many and you maybe better off with just the two.

Its possible that your MGD got worse, but if these worse symptoms coincided with the closing of ducts- thats probably it.

[shanku]

Thanks for your responses.

Papillary Conjunctivitis - mentioned this to the doc when I visited few weeks back but do not think they did anything specific to check it.

Yes have MGD which was rated 8 on a scale of 10. for last 1-2 months, this burning was terrible and prevented me from working on computer.

Later last month, had to rush for a urgent checkup with my eye provider with this eye pain, burning, foreign body sensation, light sensitivity in my eyes. On examination the doctor said eyes are profoundly dry (even with lower cauteries) and having corneal erosion /pitting /abrasion to a great extent. The reason behind it was suspected to be 2-3 mm nocturnal lagophthalmos in both eyes and no other reason was given for inner eyelid burning. They also treated me with plugs on the upper tear ducts as the lower ones are already cauterized. After all tear ducts were blocked, cornea has healed now and I do use adequate nighttime protection these days. But now excess tears is overflowing giving blurry vision and doctor do not want to remove them.Also, eyelid burning and foreign body sensation although reduced but exists. So, I am just concerned whether my problem was diagnosed properly and is getting treated appropriately. Desperate to prevent another recurrence of corneal erosion if possible.

[spmcc]

Re: overflow of tears

It sounds like you need your upper cauteries re-opened. An oculoplastic ophthalmologist would probably be able to help with that (and may suggest some things to help with your lagophthalmos).

Of course,with open puncta, you'll have to be very, very careful to protect your eyes from further erosions due to your noctural lagophthalmos.

I've never tried these, but there are "flow control" plugs. I assume that means that they control any excess tearing. Maybe ask about those after you've had the cauteries re-opened.

I have all four of my puncta cauterized/sutured and still have very dry eyes. When I was getting my final two puncta sealed, the doctor said that even if I did have some excess tearing, it would probably feel nice. But I know people who have excess tearing simply due to dry eyes (it is a symptom of dry eyes). They say it stings and is very painful. So it is a problem that should be fixed (fingers crossed for you!).

Good luck.