After receiving the diagnosis from your eye doctor that you have glaucoma, you may have questions. You will probably wonder exactly what glaucoma is, how it will affect your eyesight, and what types of treatment options there are. What might be most important to you is finding out if your eye doctor will be able to do something to help you prevent losing your eyesight, and the answer to this is yes.

What Is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a disease that causes damage to the optic nerves. It can be caused by pressure to these nerves or a lack of blood flow to them, but it can be caused by other things too. Glaucoma tends to develop as people age, but young people can also develop this disease.

Your eye doctor can diagnose glaucoma by examining your eyes and testing the pressure in them. If the problem is discovered at an early stage, your eye doctor will probably be able to treat the problem and prevent it from worsening.

How Does Glaucoma Affect Eyesight?

When you find out you have glaucoma, it is highly important to get treatment for it as soon as possible. While glaucoma is the second-leading cause of blindness, you do not have to let it get this far.

It often begins with blurry vision or trouble seeing clearly. If left untreated, it will then begin to cause problems with your peripheral vision. After that, it can begin to cause your regular eyesight to diminish too. Eventually, this disease could rob you of your entire eyesight, leaving you blind.

How Is Glaucoma Treated?

One of the first things used to treat glaucoma is eye drops. Eye drops are primarily helpful for people that are in the beginning stages of glaucoma, and the main purpose of eye drops is to control the pressure in a person's eyes. If your eye pressure can be controlled, your glaucoma will not be able to damage the optic nerves in your eyes any more.

Eye drops generally will not correct damage that is already done, but they are great for preventative measures. There are times when eye drops are not enough though, and eye doctors may also prescribe oral medications, which are also designed to assist with lowering the pressure in the eyes.

There are two other options that can be used to treat glaucoma too. Laser eye surgery is the first option, and this is a relatively painless procedure used to drain the fluid from the eye. This procedure not only drains the fluid from the eyes, but it is also used to open up the drainage tubes. This will help the eyes drain the excess fluid on a daily basis, which will cause the pressure in the eyes to decrease daily.

An eye stent is the second form of treatment used to treat glaucoma. An eye stent is a very small device that is placed inside the eye. The purpose of an eye stent is also to decrease the pressure in the eye, and when this is done it often eliminates the need for a person to use eye drops or other medications to treat their glaucoma.

Inserting an eye stent is usually done during cataract removal surgery, and it is considered a non-invasive procedure. Current studies show that the majority of people that have had stents implanted in their eyes no longer need to use medication for their eyes.

If you were recently diagnosed with glaucoma and are having trouble remembering to use your eye drops each day, you may want to talk to your doctor about another form of treatment. He or she may recommend the use of eye stents, and this could be the best solution for your problem. To learn more, contact your eye doctor today or visit http://www.checdocs.org.