Crocodile tears describes the phenomenon of lacrimation on eating. It is associated with facial nerve lesions and may develop several months after the onset of facial palsy. It is extremely distressing. It is thought to arise from regenerating salivary fibes being misdirected to the eye in the greater superficial petrosal nerve. Alternatively, fibres of the glossopharyngeal nerve may send branches from the lesser to the greater superficial petrosal nerve.
Treatment is by cutting the tympanic nerve that usually conveys the glossopharyngeal nerve fibres.
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