What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that cause damage to the nerve that carries visual information toward the brain. Glaucomatous vision loss is most often the result of high fluid pressure within the eye, which squeezes and destroys the nerve-fibers as they exit the eye. Once nerve-fibers are gone, we can't get them back and vision is lost forever. Glaucoma is a leading cause of preventable blindness and everyone is at risk.
Who is at risk for developing Glaucoma?Glaucoma can occur at any age and is not limited to any particular race or gender. With that in mind, glaucoma is most common for:
Unfortunately, patients who have Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma usually have no symptoms and even early vision loss often goes unnoticed. Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma is painless and develops gradually. Even high eye pressure is usually not noticeable. That is why it is important to get your eyes examined regularly. The doctors at Iowa EyeCare are experts at the diagnosis and treatment of all types of glaucoma.
Is there more than one type of Glaucoma?Many types of glaucoma exist. The most common is Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma.
Other types include:Routine viewing of the optic nerve and measuring of eye pressure by an optometrist will help to prevent vision loss from glaucoma from ever occurring. However, glaucoma is a complicated disease. For example, you can have glaucoma without high eye pressure. Iowa EyeCare uses the very best technology to help us diagnose glaucoma, including:
Is there any treatment for glaucoma?
Usually glaucoma can be successfully treated by using eye-pressure lowering eye drops. In some situations, however, surgery may be required. In any case, early diagnosis and treatment is the key to stopping vision loss from glaucoma. Make an appointment with our eye doctors in Robins, Marion, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, today.