Eye Tear Duct Plugs

The plugs may cause redness and swelling inflammation in the tear duct.

Eye tear duct plugs.

A tear duct plug is a small device that is implanted by an eye doctor into your tear duct to block excess tear drainage. Your doctor inserts the plug into your tear duct to block the natural drainage of tears from your eye down the duct and into your nose. Punctal occlusion is a painless procedure in which the puncta small openings in the corners of the eyes through which tears drain the tear ducts are blocked. The plugs are inserted into the tear duct opening punctal in the corner of your eye.

Ongoing inflammation can scar or damage the tear ducts. Tear duct plugs are very small and are designed to be implanted into your eyelid without causing any sort of discomfort. A punctal plug is a small device that blocks tear duct drainage. This is the area where tears usually drain through the back of your nose and throat.

Plugs that don t fit properly could stick out of the tear duct and rub against the surface of your eye or eyelid. If temporary plugs work well your doctor may move to longer lasting ones or may go right to a. The closure conserves both your own tears and artificial tears you may have added. Punctal plugs may help to relieve the symptoms of chronic dry itchy or burning eyes.

This increases the eye s tear film and surface moisture to help relieve certain forms of dry eye also known as punctum plugs lacrimal plugs or occluders these devices often are no larger than a grain of rice. One approach to treating dry eyes is plugging the openings to the tear ducts with tiny silicone plugs punctal plugs. This keeps tears eyedrops and medicine on your eyes for. Some types of eye infections can occur though.

Sometimes punctal plugs can irritate the tear ducts. These plugs close the tiny opening punctum that you have in the inner corner of your upper and lower eyelids. Punctal plugs are tiny biocompatible devices that can be inserted into tear ducts to block drainage. Shore said that when a plug lodged in the midcanaliculus is surrounded by scar tissue he has had to use silicone tubes to stent open the tear duct while it heals.