What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a nerve disease that causes you to go blind over time. This is because the internal pressure of the eye is too high. There are many forms of glaucoma; most can be divided into long-term ("Open Angle") and short-term ("Closed Angle") glaucoma:
- Long-term glaucoma usually occurs over years, where the pressure in the eye is slightly above what it can handle, causing a slow but progressive loss of vision. This pressure difference is subtle - you won't feel this pressure in your eyes. This is not an emergency, but it does need to be evaluated at your routine examination, or more frequently depending on your overall risk. This is the more common form of glaucoma, but is often ignored because of the subtlety of its symptoms.
- Short-term glaucoma happens very quickly over days or even hours, as pressure spikes to dangerously high levels causing quickly progressive and permanent nerve damage. This pressure difference is drastic and you will feel it - the eye will feel hard like a rock, be very red, and you may even be nauseous or start to vomit. This is an emergency room situation. While much less common than long-term, there are ways to detect or predict risk, and appropriate procedures to almost entirely reduce this risk.
Vision loss in glaucoma starts as tunnel vision, and over time the tunnel will get smaller and smaller until total vision loss occurs. This tunnel vision at first, however, is usually undetectable by the individual because it is all the way out in the peripheral vision. By the time the individual can detect the vision loss, the disease is very far progressed and vision lost cannot be restored - it is permanent. Even those of us with "perfect 20/20 vision" for our entire lives can still get glaucoma!!! You should never go more than 2 years at the most without a routine check-up, even if you feel like you can see "just fine".
Fortunately, at Werner Eyes, we have an expansive array of glaucoma testing methods and devices that will make you feel confident that you either don't have glaucoma, are at risk, or have glaucoma but are being properly and adequately treated. Our tests include:
- Pressure Checks -
- Optic Nerve Scans -
- Corneal Thickness Scans -
- Drainage Structure Scans -
- Peripheral Vision Tests -
Glaucoma is influenced by many factors - eye pressure is paramount, but everyone is different. For example, a "thicker" eye or thicker cornea can handle a higher pressure than a "thinner" eye. An eye with drain that is more "open" is at less risk than one that is smaller or more narrow. We not only perform all these tests to determine risk or presence of glaucoma, we also go over them in detail with you, explaining things in a way that is relatable and can be understood.
Glaucoma is often easy to treat if it is detected early. If you haven't had a checkup in a while, call us now to schedule a time to come in!
*click here for more external articles on glaucoma*
- Long-term glaucoma usually occurs over years, where the pressure in the eye is slightly above what it can handle, causing a slow but progressive loss of vision. This pressure difference is subtle - you won't feel this pressure in your eyes. This is not an emergency, but it does need to be evaluated at your routine examination, or more frequently depending on your overall risk. This is the more common form of glaucoma, but is often ignored because of the subtlety of its symptoms.
- Short-term glaucoma happens very quickly over days or even hours, as pressure spikes to dangerously high levels causing quickly progressive and permanent nerve damage. This pressure difference is drastic and you will feel it - the eye will feel hard like a rock, be very red, and you may even be nauseous or start to vomit. This is an emergency room situation. While much less common than long-term, there are ways to detect or predict risk, and appropriate procedures to almost entirely reduce this risk.
Vision loss in glaucoma starts as tunnel vision, and over time the tunnel will get smaller and smaller until total vision loss occurs. This tunnel vision at first, however, is usually undetectable by the individual because it is all the way out in the peripheral vision. By the time the individual can detect the vision loss, the disease is very far progressed and vision lost cannot be restored - it is permanent. Even those of us with "perfect 20/20 vision" for our entire lives can still get glaucoma!!! You should never go more than 2 years at the most without a routine check-up, even if you feel like you can see "just fine".
Fortunately, at Werner Eyes, we have an expansive array of glaucoma testing methods and devices that will make you feel confident that you either don't have glaucoma, are at risk, or have glaucoma but are being properly and adequately treated. Our tests include:
- Pressure Checks -
- Optic Nerve Scans -
- Corneal Thickness Scans -
- Drainage Structure Scans -
- Peripheral Vision Tests -
Glaucoma is influenced by many factors - eye pressure is paramount, but everyone is different. For example, a "thicker" eye or thicker cornea can handle a higher pressure than a "thinner" eye. An eye with drain that is more "open" is at less risk than one that is smaller or more narrow. We not only perform all these tests to determine risk or presence of glaucoma, we also go over them in detail with you, explaining things in a way that is relatable and can be understood.
Glaucoma is often easy to treat if it is detected early. If you haven't had a checkup in a while, call us now to schedule a time to come in!
*click here for more external articles on glaucoma*