Glaucoma Care

Glaucoma is a disease that damages your eye’s optic nerve. It usually happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye. That extra fluid increases the pressure in your eye, damaging the optic nerve.

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What Is the Main Cause of Glaucoma?

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Your eye constantly makes aqueous humor. As new aqueous flows into your eye, the same amount should drain out. The fluid drains out through an area called the drainage angle. This process keeps pressure in the eye (called intraocular pressure or IOP) stable. But if the drainage angles not working properly, fluid builds up. Pressure inside the eye rises,damaging the optic nerve.

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The optic nerve is made of more than a million tiny nerve fibers. It islike an electric cable made up of many small wires. As these nerve fibers die,you will develop blind spots in your vision. You may not notice these blindspots until most of your optic nerve fibers have died. If all of the fibersdie, you will become blind.

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How Do You Get Glaucoma?

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There are two major types of glaucoma.

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Open-angle glaucoma

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This is the most common type of glaucoma. It happens gradually, where the eye does not drain fluid as well as it should (like a clogged drain). As a result, eye pressure builds and starts to damage the optic nerve. This type of glaucoma is painless and causes no vision changes at first. Some people can have optic nerves that are sensitive to normal eye pressure. This means their risk of getting glaucoma is higher than normal. Regular eye exams are important to find early signs of damage to the optic nerve.

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Glaucoma Diagnosis

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The only sure way to diagnose glaucoma is with a complete eye exam. A glaucoma screening that only checks eye pressure isnot enough to find glaucoma.

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During a glaucoma exam, your ophthalmologist will: 

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- measure your eye pressure 
- inspect your eye's drainage angle 
- examine your optic nerve for damage 
- test your peripheral (side) vision 
- take a picture or computer measurement of your optic nerve 
- measure the thickness of your cornea

 

Medication

 

Glaucoma is usually controlled with eyedrop medicine. Used every day, these eye drops lower eye pressure. Some do this by reducing the amount of aqueous fluid the eye makes. Others reduce pressure by helping fluid flow better through the drainage angle.