Glaucoma can be difficult to live with — loss of peripheral vision, difficulty with everyday activities, and complete blindness are just a few of the side effects a patient with glaucoma may experience if no action is taken.
Those conditions are what we at Eyecare & Eyewear of Carrollton can help you either mitigate or prevent altogether. With regular eye exams, we can detect problems early on and prescribe the proper treatment so that you can live your life without the worry of deteriorating vision.
Step one, as always, is understanding. So let’s take a look at just a bit of what glaucoma management involves:
Know Your Condition
Glaucoma is actually a group of conditions that cause your vision to worsen from fluid pressure that causes damage to your optic nerve. There are two main types of glaucoma:
- Open-angle glaucoma: the gradual, painless erosion of peripheral vision in both eyes
- Angle-closure glaucoma: sudden, painful blurred vision in one eye
Both types of glaucoma can be frightening, since each features marked deterioration of vision. But if you understand the biological basis of the disease and the symptoms that can be expected in the future, you can be prepared to take efficient steps toward managing your particular type of glaucoma. Educating yourself and talking to professionals is key.
Catch It Early
Here at ECEW, we’re proud to offer a range of cutting-edge methods to detect glaucoma at its earliest stages. These include dilation exams, measuring intraocular pressure, and examining your eyes for damage to the optic nerves. We recommend getting a dilated eye exam every year, even if you’ve never worn corrective lenses. Regular appointments can help your doctors catch your glaucoma early and keep it from developing further.
There are also some symptoms and noteworthy risk factors to be aware of. For example, even a slight loss of vision can indicate glaucoma. If you have diabetes, are African-American or are a woman, you are nearly three times as likely to develop open-angle glaucoma.
You’ve Got Options
There are many ways to manage glaucoma, but all have one central goal in common: pressure relief. The key to easing and stopping glaucoma is to relieve the strain on your eye so that the optic nerve is less likely to experience significant damage. There are many ways to do this.
For angle-closure glaucoma, treatment usually consists of using a laser to open the drainage channels in the eye. Surgical treatments include laser trabeculoplasty, trabeculectomy, laser peripheral iridotomy, and glaucoma drainage implants. As for non-surgical options, several pharmaceuticals (these usually come in an eye-drop form) can work as well so that you don’t need surgery.
If you have glaucoma, or would like to learn more about how to prevent it, contact our Carrollton glaucoma management experts to schedule an eye exam or learn more.
