How can one find out that he or she is affected with glaucoma?

Question

How does a person know that he is affected with glaucoma before getting a treatment

Answer 1

Symptoms

While glaucoma may or may not have distinct symptoms, an almost inevitable complication of glaucoma is vision loss. Visual loss from glaucoma first affects peripheral vision. Early vision loss is subtle, and is not noticed by the patient. Moderate to severe vision loss may be noticed by the patient by checking his peripheral vision thoroughly. This can be done by closing one eye and examining all four corners of the visual field for clarity and sharpness, then repeating with the other eye closed. All too often, the patient does not notice the loss of vision until he experiences "tunnel vision". If the disease is not treated, the visual field will become more and more narrow, obscuring central vision, and finally progressing to blindness in the affected eye(s).

Waiting for symptoms of visual loss to occur is not optimal care. Visual loss related to glaucoma is irreversible, but can be prevented or slowed by treatment. An optometrist or ophthalmologist should be consulted by people at risk for glaucoma.

Risk factors and diagnosis

A normal range of vision. Courtesy NIH National Eye Institute
The same view with advanced vision loss from glaucoma.People with a family history of glaucoma have about a six percent chance of developing glaucoma. Diabetics and black people are three times more likely to develop primary open angle glaucoma. Asians are prone to develop angle-closure glaucoma, and Inuit have a 20 to 40 times higher risk than white people to develop primary angle closure glaucoma. Women are three times more likely than men to develop acute angle-closure glaucoma due to their shallower anterior chambers.

Ideally, everyone over the age of thirty-five should be checked for glaucoma, with the frequency of the checkups increasing with age. Half the people who have glaucoma do not know that they have it.

A number of studies suggest that there is a correlative, not necessarily causal, relationship between glaucoma and systemic hypertension (i.e. high blood pressure).

Screening for glaucoma is usually performed as part of a standard eye examination performed by ophthalmologists and optometrists. Testing for glaucoma should include measurement of the intraocular pressure, as well as examination of the optic nerve to look for any damage to it. If there is any suspicion of damage to the optic nerve, a formal visual field test should be performed. Scanning laser ophthalmoscopy may also be performed.

Answer 2

I was just to the optometrist a couple of weeks ago and had a test for glaucoma. It was really quite simple. You sit behind a machine and look at a picture of a tractor in a field. You get a quick and painless puff of air and in seconds, the technician will tell you whether there is a concern or not. Get the test done at the optometrist. It'll set your mind at ease. Good luck

Answer 3

See an eye Dr. There is a quick, simple test for glaucoma