Clearing blocked tear ducts is quick and easy

By Nick Rees

As many as five percent of newborn babies will have a blocked tear duct, which usually will clear up on its own in the first year of a child's life.

"This is typically a congenital problem," Dr. Deena Leonard, MD, selected as a Chicago Top Doctor by TopTierMD as a top rated ophthalmologist in Chicago, says. "Ninety-five percent of the cases will resolve spontaneously with no intervention in the first year of life. It's typically not a threat to vision but it's a very big nuisance."

Symptoms of a blocked tear duct can include excessive tearing and watery eyes. Other symptoms may arise because blocked tear ducts can cause eye infections, including recurrent eye inflammation and eye infections, painful swelling of the inside corner of the eye, eye mucous discharge, blurred vision and even bloody tears.

"Tear ducts are internal drains that connect the eye to the nose to provide a way for tears produced by the eye to drain," Dr. Leonard says. "If there's a blockage of that passageway, the eyes will fill up with tears and lead to chronic infections or pink eye as they get infected. Children will often have lots of discharge or eyes that are 'glued shut' in the morning because of crusting and discharge."

Treatment for a blocked tear duct may use the minimally invasive probing surgery, which is done under general anesthesia.

"It's a very brief procedure, about 10 minutes, where a probe is passed from the origin of the tear ducts near the nose downward through the ducts into the nose," Dr. Leonard says. "We start with a very fine wire and use bigger and bigger wires to make sure that there's a nice opening.

"There's no external scarring or cutting. We just go through the natural passageway. There's no pain for the child and no recovery time. Parents tell me that the child ends up taking a longer than normal afternoon nap."

The surgery carries a 95 percent success rate if it is performed between the ages of 12 and 18 months. If significant tearing symptoms remain after the surgery, a more involved surgery is performed that places a stent in the tear drain. The stent remains in the tear drain for approximately three months and is then removed in the doctor's office.

Treating a blocked tear duct at an early age is important, Dr. Leonard says, because, though it is very rare, a blocked tear duct may indicate infantile glaucoma, which she says is very rare.

"Aside from that, we don't want to see these kids for the first time at age two, because then we've exceeded the optimal time to treat the problem and have to use a much more involved procedure to achieve the same success rate."

Dr. Deena Leonard, MD, was selected by TopTierMD as a Chicago Top Doctor and is considered to be best in ophthalmology in Chicago. She specializes in the treatment of strabismus, amblyopia and blocked tear ducts.