Dry eyes become more common the older we become. This is especially common for women after menopause. A tremendous amount of research is being done on dry eyes, and the complexity of the tears has surprised most researchers. The findings show that dryness is more a matter of tear quality than quantity. In fact, when your tears aren’t working right, your eyes will try to compensate by making more volume. This can occur because the protein coating on the eye's surface is deficient because of inflammation. This is common in autoimmuned disorders. It is most often the case, however, that the oily protective coating on the outside of the tears is deficient. This part is made by the 20 to 30 deep oil glands (called meibomian glands) on the back surface of each lid: the act of blinking is supposed to spread a protective coating on the surface of the tears to protect them from evaporation. When these are clogged, the watery part of the tears evaporates, and often the eyes will try to compensate by releasing more of the watery part, resulting in excessive tearing.

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