Mast cells are not technically part of your eye, but they are responsible for all the eye irritation, redness, and watering that occurs when a person has allergies. Mast cells are actually found in the mucus and tissue that line the surface of all organs in the body, not just the eyes. But as we all know, the eyes are some of the sensitive and most easily harmed organs in the body. So, they’re also plenty important. Protecting your eyes is smart, but when someone has pollen allergies or something similar, and it’s springtime, they’re going to have their mast cells going haywire. That causes eye allergy symptoms, but can allergies cause crusty eyes?
Yes, they can, although for most people with mild to moderate allergies, they’ll only have the common bothersome symptoms. And for most people, that is itchy eyes, and sometimes eyes so itchy that it is infuriating you can’t rub them for relief. Of course, you can rub them for relief, but it will be temporary, and they’ll itch more shortly after. Fortunately, most seasonal allergy sufferers can take an OTC antihistamine like Allegra and get the eye allergy relief they need, but for some people, they have more severe allergies. Can allergies cause crusty eyes? That may be the case for these people.
We’ll talk about why that is here with this entry, but vernal conjunctivitis (pollen allergies) isn’t the only type of conjunctivitis that can result in eye torment for people. For some, the possibility of an allergy attack isn’t related to the time of year at all. However, vernal conjunctivitis may be the one that is most responsible for the telltale super red and watery eyes that let you know someone is having a tough time with all those blooming plants and fresh-cut lawns all over the place. Ever met someone who is not at all cool with cats, and not because they dislike them?
Fine, but it’s plenty hot in plenty of places around the planet these days, so on the flip side, here’s a way to keep cats cool during a heatwave. Good information to have for people who are fortunate that they don’t have an allergy to cat dander and are able to have one as a pet. But let’s stay on track here with can allergies cause crusty eyes and talk about why that’s the case.
There’s no such thing as crusty eye allergies, but it is true allergy sufferers of any type may indeed wake with their eyelids and the corner of their eye crusted over. Blame the tear ducts if you like, but they’re just doing what they are told to do. But what happens differently for some people – not all – when they have conjunctivitis is that the tears have more mucus in them than they usually do. This mucus creates the crusts in your eyes, but it’s a different process from where you wake up with what some people call sleep crust.
Can allergies cause crusty eyes? Of course, they can, but they won’t have anything to do with sleep crust. If you’ve ever wondered why we get sleep crust, it’s because none of us blink while we sleep. True if you think about it, and when the eye doesn’t blink, it doesn’t flush out eye discharge the way it does during the day.
With allergies, it just becomes a situation where there’s too much eye discharge and more mucus in it because the mast cells are pumping out histamine at the request of the immune system and its inflammatory response. So, eyes produce more discharge when they are inflamed, and that’s exactly what happens with exposure to whatever allergen it is that you’re allergic to.
We’ve laid out the answer to can allergies cause crusty eyes, and while it’s true, it usually doesn’t happen unless you have a very strong reaction to allergy attacks. Nasal sprays work well for allergic reaction symptoms in the nose, and using them may help with mucus there, but not in your tears. Effective antihistamine medication may reduce the intensity of your eye allergy symptoms, including crusting, but possibly not eliminate entirely.
People who use Allegra or another prescription antihistamine will likely experience less of this, but if the crusting is quite intense, then it may actually be stuck to the skin. It doesn’t hurt that much to pull it away, but while it has nothing to do with allergies causing crusty eyes, you might want to consider making yourself a warm compress cloth to soften up the crust and make it easier to remove.