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Detecting Glaucoma Early Can Help Prevent Blindness

Patients often hear glaucoma and can't imagine how it could ever happen to them. However, during the aging process, the eyes become more vulnerable to disease and deterioration each passing year. Anyone who has any worries about glaucoma Boulder should find a vision specialist who can help them monitor their eyes for their best health for the present and in the future. With periodic testing, patients can stay against this condition and help prevent the eventual loss of vision that unchecked glaucoma can cause. What Is Glaucoma?

Often a misunderstood eye disease, and for good reason, glaucoma is complex and sometimes leaves the general public with more questions than answers. There are some basic facts about glaucoma that might help people understand the basics a little better.

First, glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness when left untreated. Additionally, even patients who stay vigilant and keep regularly scheduled eye car appointments might suffer from blindness. Approximately 10 percent of people who have glaucoma-induced blindness followed all the necessary precautions. However, that doesn't mean that people should take any risks. It is always worth it to make the effort, even if it makes no difference. The chances are good that, if patients don't monitor their eye care, something bad could happen. The resulting regret over not having taken every precaution might feel worse than losing vision, in spite of every effort.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for glaucoma, although scientists continue to work toward a solution for this disease. That doesn't mean all is lost for those who do suffer from glaucoma. Eye care specialists will work to halt the progression of the disease to do all they can to save their patients' vision. Eye doctors approach this disease with a treatment that includes a combination of medication and surgery. Many patients have open-angle glaucoma, which is a chronic condition that eye doctors must monitor for the rest of a patient's life. While commonly associated with senior citizens, anyone is susceptible to the possibility of developing glaucoma. Even infants can develop this disease, as well as young adults.

The worst aspect of glaucoma is that it can develop and progress without giving the patient any indication through symptoms, so unless the patient has regular eye exams, they could go for years while the disease progresses and causes irreversible damage to their vision.

Without monitoring, the first indication patients might experience is the loss of vision in their peripheral line of sight.