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  • Eyelid Surgery and Blocked Tear Ducts
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Male Voice: Six percent or six out of every hundred children are actually born with a blocked tear duct. Most of these clear up by themselves by the time children are one year of age. Some children don't get better by themselves, and others have continual infections. If a child has continuous infections in the eye as the result of a blocked tear duct, there's a procedure that can be performed. It's a minor procedure, which takes between 10 and 20 minutes to perform, which has an extremely high rate of success, and poses very low risk for the children.

Tearing in adults can be caused by a number of different problems. Sometimes tearing is caused by a blockage in the tear duct's drain itself, much like the drain under a kitchen sink would get blocked. Other times, tearing occurs because the eyelids are not in proper position to channel the tears into the drain. The combination of eyelid surgery, opening the blocked tear ducts, and improving the position of the eyelids relative to the eye, tearing in adults can generally be treated very effectively, as well.

These are all outpatient procedures with high rates of success.

Eyelid Surgery and Blocked Tear Ducts

Doctor Brian Biesman discusses eyelid surgery and blocked tear ducts.