What is glaucoma?
or pain in the eye. This is yet another reason to see your eye care professional on a regular yearly basis. Your optometric physician will evaluate your eye health as part of your routine eye health exam. If there are suspected issues, he or she may ask you to return for a visual field test and/or return for more frequent visits to monitor eye health and pressures. When glaucoma is no longer suspected but confirmed, your doctor may prescribe a glaucoma medication that will help to control the pressures in your eye. Dr. Mark Rasmussen, OD 1651 Galisteo St, Suite 1 505.983.7746 ultimateeyecaresantafe.com
W
hat is glaucoma? And why are yearly eye health exams important in detecting it?
Glaucoma is an eye condition caused by increased pressure in the eye. This increased pressure causes damage to the optic nerve and can worsen over time if not treated. Glaucoma can be inherited and can show up later in life. Without treatment, glaucoma can cause total permanent blindness within a few years. We call glaucoma the silent danger because there are no early symptoms
Think of your eye as a ball filled with fluid. The fluid is constantly being made in the eye and should continually be draining out of the eye. If the drain does not function
properly and the fluid stops draining, the pressure begins to build up. When the pressure is elevated, the blood can no longer enter the eye as easily, and therefore is less able to feed the eye. When the eye is not fed, the fragile tissue inside the eye begins to die. This results in a slow loss of the peripheral vision and usually this vision loss is not noticed until it is too late. We hope that this has helped your understanding of glaucoma and why it is so important to see your optometric physician on a regular yearly basis! Come visit us in our new facility or make an appointment with Dr. Rasmussen for a thorough eye health examination..