January is Glaucoma Awareness
Month and Center for Sight in Fall River wants to remind patients that it is
time to schedule an eye exam with the proper level of glaucoma tests if you
have not already done so. Early detection, diagnosis and treatment are the keys
to preventing vision loss from glaucoma. This is why proper glaucoma eye exams
and screenings are so important-especially if you have any glaucoma risk factors.
Common glaucoma risk include any
family history of glaucoma-especially among siblings, smoking, diabetes, high
blood pressure, sleep apnea, early menopause, alcohol consumption, being of
African-American or Hispanic descent and increasing age.
Eye Exams for Glaucoma
Eye exams for glaucoma should begin by checking your visual acuity with and without your eyeglasses or contact lenses. Then, the tonometry test should be performed. This is a method of measuring your Intraocular Pressure (IOP) and gives us the first piece of important information in determining whether you might have glaucoma. Ophthalmoscopy and slit lamp biomicroscopy with a high magnification lens are also used to detect and diagnose glaucoma. These examination techniques are methods of carefully examining the inside of the eye-especially the optic nerve-in order to detect glaucoma. It is necessary to have some eye drops placed in your eyes in order to dilate your pupils so that we can make a clear and direct observation of the optic nerve.
If you or someone you know has questions about
glaucoma or glaucoma risk factors or needs to schedule a glaucoma eye exam, please call us at 508-730-2020, visit Center for Sight or www.facebook.com/CenterForSightFallRiver.
Center for Sight is conveniently
located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts
02720 for patients
from Massachusetts or Rhode Island.
