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Causes And Treatments For Claucoma

When you lose sight in your eyes, the results can be dangerous for you and those around you. Realizing that you can't see like you should be able to can be frightening. Your whole world can become obscured behind one or more blind spots. Headaches, nausea, breathing problems, and other complications can make your loss of vision feel unbearable. If you do nothing to correct glaucoma, it will progress until you completely lose function in your eyes. If you want to save your sight, you need to detect glaucoma quickly and treat it effectively. 

What is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of conditions that can lead to vision loss. These conditions cause the optic nerve to deteriorate until it no longer functions like it should. The main problem is that drainage of the eye gets blocked. This leads the eye pressure to mount until it puts enough strain on the optic nerve to cause damage. 

Correcting Glaucoma

The procedure required to correct glaucoma will depend on what type of glaucoma you have. Open-angle glaucoma happens when the open drainage angle of the eye gets blocked. A temporary blockage can be treated with eye drops and/or medications. A drainage that is consistently blocked should be treated with laser surgery. 

Angle-closure glaucoma is the name used to describe when the drainage angle begins to narrow and close. When this happens, you need to open up the drainage angle. The right medications can help with this, but often laser surgery is necessary. 

There are other conditions that can lead to glaucoma. A good eye doctor will be thorough and should catch these conditions in order to know what technique to use to correct the condition.

Order of Treatments

Typically, a doctor (like those at Leader Heights Eye Center) will start with eyedrops and medications since they are the least invasive. If the condition can be treated with these steps, you might need no further help. If eyedrops and medications don't work, a doctor will typically use a laser treatment. If nothing else works, eye surgery might be your only option. In some severe cases, a doctor might skip eyedrops and move on to other more advanced treatment options. 

The key to not losing your vision to glaucoma is to catch it early and stay up with your treatments. While going to a doctor might be unnerving and uncomfortable, a good doctor is your best ally in saving your vision.