You understand the importance of regular exercise, eating healthy, and scheduling regular doctor’s appointments. But do you take the same sort of proactive approach to protecting your vision? Unfortunately, if you are someone who regularly skips your comprehensive eye exams, you don’t.
This is unfortunate because many common eye diseases like glaucoma can be detected early with yearly comprehensive eye exams. Glaucoma is treatable but if left untreated, it can cause permanent vision loss. Glaucoma causes pressure to continue to build in the eye due to an inability to produce and drain fluid. As the pressure continues to build it damages the retina and causes vision loss.
The Two Different Types of Glaucoma
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the world but because it usually doesn’t cause any obvious symptoms or pain in the early stages, many people are unaware that they have it.
Anyone can get glaucoma although there are certain factors that put you at higher risk. If you have a family history of this eye disease you are at much higher risk of developing the disease yourself. Glaucoma also commonly affects elderly people and people with diabetes.
The two different types of glaucoma are angle-closure glaucoma and open-angle glaucoma. Open-angle is the most common type of glaucoma, affecting most glaucoma patients. It is not painful and produces very few symptoms in the beginning so many people will be unaware that they have it right away.
Angle-closure glaucoma has very noticeable symptoms such as nausea and vomiting and it can be quite painful early on. However, angle-closure glaucoma also causes vision damage much more quickly.
Conclusion
There is no cure for glaucoma but there are surgical options available. Early detection is very important for treating your condition and protecting the long-term health of your eyes. Don’t make the mistake of ignoring your symptoms and hoping they will go away on their own.
Yearly vision exams are the best way to protect your eyes from glaucoma and other common eye diseases. To learn more about how you can take care of your eyes, request an appointment with one of our Bangor, ME doctors today.
