Glaucoma is sometimes called the silent thief because it can slowly steal your sight before you realize anything's wrong, beginning with your peripheral vision. It's a leading cause of vision loss and blindness.

The most common form of glaucoma, primary open-angle glaucoma, develops gradually, giving no warning signs. Many people aren't even aware they have an eye problem until their vision is extensively compromised.

Glaucoma is a disease leading to progressive damage of the optic nerve, usually accompanied by an abnormally high pressure inside your eyeball. Blind spots develop in your visual field when the optic nerve is damaged, usually starting with your peripheral (side) vision. If left untreated, glaucoma may lead to blindness in both eyes.

If I Had - Glaucoma - Dr. Henry Jampel, MD

Fortunately, medical advances have made it easier to diagnose and treat glaucoma. If detected and treated early, many people maintain good central vision. Early detection is achieved with a dilated fundus examination, and other instruments such as a Humphrey Visual Field (HVF), Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), and tonometry. Treatment includes topical medication (drops), laser surgery, or a trabeculectomy (building a new drain).

Currently there is no cure for glaucoma, but there are eye drops that help in the treatment of it. Eye drops are used to help regulate the flow of fluid in or out of the eye. These eye drops are an important step in helping suffers of glaucoma so it is important that eye drops are administered properly. Watch this short video on how to correctly apply the eye drops in order to minimize the amount of the eye drop medication wasted on application attempts.

If you have glaucoma please make an appointment for a complete glaucoma workup.