How to Stop the Progression of Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a serious eye disease that gets progressively worse with time, even leading to permanent blindness. However, taking the right steps can protect your optic nerve and preserve your sight.

At Maryland Eye Care Center, our team is committed to providing outstanding eye care for individuals of all ages in the communities of Silver Spring and Hyattsville, Maryland. Our board-certified ophthalmologists and optometrists use their extensive skill and the most advanced medical technology available when diagnosing and treating conditions that threaten your vision and eye health, including glaucoma.

Here’s what our top-rated specialists have to say about glaucoma and the therapies you can find at Maryland Eye Care Center.

Glaucoma basics

There are different types of glaucoma, but they all damage the optic nerve. These nerves — you have one for each eye — carry the light impulses captured by your retina to your brain. Your brain reviews then the signals and processes them as the images you see.

Unfortunately, sustaining damage to the optic nerve results in visual loss. In the early stages of glaucoma, changes to your sight may be mild. However, they continue to worsen as the condition affecting the nerve advances. 

Most forms of glaucoma are due to increased pressure in your eye. Over time, this pressure causes damage to the optic nerve, and if glaucoma goes untreated, the continuous pressure destroys the nerve, causing irreversible vision loss.

The form we see most often is “open-angle glaucoma.” The good news about this type is that the vision changes associated with open-angle glaucoma usually worsen slowly over time. That means there are several steps we can take to protect your sight if you have this disabling condition.

Treating glaucoma

The increased eye pressure in glaucoma is typically due to abnormal buildup of fluid within your eyes. This naturally occurring fluid (aqueous humor) usually maintains a relatively constant level. And, if needed, excess drains away through a complex structure of tissue known as the trabecular meshwork.  

However, problems arise when your body produces too much of this fluid, or your drainage network doesn’t function properly. As fluid builds up, so does the pressure within your eye. So, one of the main goals of our treatment involves reducing this abnormal buildup of fluid.

At Maryland Eye Care Center, our experts develop individualized treatment plans that focus on your needs. Based on your condition, your strategy could include:

• Prescription eye drops to improve inner fluid drainage
• Eye drops containing medications to slow fluid production
• Oral medication to decrease internal eye pressure

For more advanced glaucoma, we may also recommend laser therapy or minimally invasive surgery. These therapies work on correcting drainage issues to lower eye pressure and prevent further vision loss.  

Rest easy knowing you’re in good hands if you have glaucoma. Our specialists have advanced training and innovative technology at their disposal, and they can provide the latest and most effective therapy options available for preventing the progressive visual loss associated with glaucoma.

Preventing glaucoma

Fortunately, there are also steps you can take to help prevent the dangerous effects of glaucoma. When it comes to prevention, the easiest and most important thing you can do is schedule regular routine eye exams.

During an exam at Maryland Eye Care Center, we check your visual acuity as well as the inner health and well-being of your eyes. Part of this includes looking for higher-than-normal pressure levels that could be a warning sign of glaucoma. 

After determining your risk, we could suggest daily eye drops or other therapies to help protect your eye health and vision.

You can also make healthy lifestyle changes to prevent visual losses related to glaucoma, like getting adequate exercise and eating a nutritional diet. Since other medical conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease threaten your eye health, we also recommend working closely with your primary care doctor to keep these issues properly managed.

To learn more about protecting your vision from glaucoma, schedule a visit at Maryland Eye Care Center today.