What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the United States, is a "stealth" disease. The early stages are gradual, painless, and have no early warning signs. Glaucoma can gradually destroy your vision without you even knowing it.
Glaucoma is a disease that causes fluid to build up in the eye, which increases eye pressure. It has several causes, can be hereditary in some families, and strikes more frequently with advancing age. Increased pressure in the eye can be dangerous, affecting nerve fibers that carry visual information to the brain. If these fibers become damaged, permanent vision loss can occur.
Although no one yet knows how to prevent glaucoma, if caught early, it can usually be managed quite effectively. That's why it's so important to have regular, thorough eye exams. People at high risk for glaucoma due to high intraocular pressures, family history, ethnic background, age or optic nerve appearance may need more frequent exams. With early detection and treatment, glaucoma can be controlled in most cases, and little or no further vision loss should occur. If left untreated, glaucoma can destroy your vision and eventually cause blindness.
Advancing glaucoma may cause no symptoms, or you may experience blurred vision, a loss in side vision, and in rare cases pain or redness in the eye. At Sunshine Eye Clinic, our routine eye exams always include a painless test for glaucoma. We measure pressure within the eyes, and also look thoroughly inside your eyes to check the health of the optic nerve and measure your field of vision. If we detect glaucoma, there are a number of options available to successfully control this disease, including medications or surgery.
