Where do tears go when you blink them back?

[pinksmartie]

When your eyes fill up with tears and you blink them back, where do they go? If they don't roll down your face they must go somewhere. Are they absorbed back into the eye?

[sunflower68]

Aren't they connected to the nasal passages or something. Maybe they become bogies. : o )

[pinksmartie]

Lol sunflower. Euggh.

[Mammar]

What an excellent question!
Sunny - the NASAL passages?
Surely not.
I know it's "ear, nose and throat" but didn't know eyes had been added. Lol
Hope somebody tells us.

[partyanimal]

The tears do indeed filter through the Nasal passages.

[pinksmartie]

So they just become dried bogies? Lovely!

I was wondering about it last night. I get a lot of these ingeniously random questions pop into my head and I just thought I'd try to satisfy my curiosity lol

[sunflower68]

when I got my new contact lenses and couldn't get them in at the optician, it felt after a while that I had a major cold.
The guy said the tear ducts had over flowed with tears and spilt down into my nose. Yum.

[pinksmartie]

So that might be the reason your nose runs when you cry a lot....

[Mammar]

Thank you for teaching me something new folks.
Next time I blow my nose I shall think of you lot!
Lol

[pinksmartie]

Likewise Mammar! :-)

[Scylax]

The edges of the nasal side of each eye have
tiny puncta, which drain tears into the naso-pharynx.
Hence the need to blow one's nose when crying.

The puncta can become blocked, and tears will
overspill onto the cheeks (epiphora); happily this
can easily be remedied by dilating each punctum.