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Glaucoma is an eye condition that develops when the pressure inside your eyes is too high. High intraocular pressure can damage your optic nerve and compromise your vision. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness.
In many cases, glaucoma develops slowly and painlessly, making it difficult to detect until irreversible vision impairment has occurred.
So, what happens if you don’t treat glaucoma in time? That’s what our team at Maryland Eye Care Center tackles below. Read on to learn what happens if you don’t treat glaucoma and how we can help if you develop the condition.
There are several types of glaucoma, but they all can lead to:
Untreated open-angle glaucoma — a type of glaucoma that accounts for 90% of cases — can lead to progressive vision loss. Initially, you might notice difficulty with activities like driving or navigating stairs as your peripheral vision increasingly becomes limited.
Over time, this loss progresses toward the center, resulting in tunnel vision. Without intervention, this vision loss can eventually lead to total blindness.
With angle-closure glaucoma (a rare form), vision loss isn’t as progressive but can happen quickly. Untreated angle-closure glaucoma can lead to vision loss in just a few days. This type of glaucoma is considered an emergency; signs include eye pain, nausea, and headaches.
Untreated glaucoma causes continued damage to the optic nerve, which connects the eye and brain. Since the optic nerve carries signals for visual information, its deterioration can severely impair vision.
Damaged optic nerve fibers can’t be restored; the effects on vision are permanent.
Advancing glaucoma can make everyday tasks more challenging. Reading, walking, and performing household chores like cooking may become difficult.
Because decreasing vision can also impact your safety, not treating glaucoma could lead to a loss of independence. For example, you might have to give up driving.
Advanced glaucoma that’s untreated puts you at a high risk of total blindness. Vision lost to glaucoma can’t be regained.
Treatments like medications, laser therapy, or surgery can help manage glaucoma, but only early intervention can reduce your risk of severe vision impairment.
Before you can start glaucoma treatment, we must confirm you have it. Unfortunately, more than half of the 3 million people with glaucoma don’t realize it.
That’s why routine eye exams are critical. They might be the only way to learn you’re in the early stages of glaucoma. Your Maryland Eye Care Center provider can detect normal-tension glaucoma (where you don’t have high pressure) by looking at your optic nerve.
We can measure your eye pressure during your eye exam at Maryland Eye Care Center. If you have glaucoma, you can get started with treatments to lower your intraocular pressure.
You might benefit from:
Our team can help diagnose and manage eye conditions like glaucoma to help save your vision. To schedule a comprehensive eye exam in Silver Spring or Hyattsville, Maryland, call 301-431-0431 or request an appointment online today.
