Glaucoma Care
Omni Eye Services is a pioneer in what has become known as Interventional Glaucoma. Eyedrops have been traditionally used to lower eye pressure, but they are expensive, difficult to instill, and hard to remember. Interventional glaucoma shifts the treatment paradigm to a more preventative, earlier proactive approach. Our goal is to establish effective therapy and pressure lowering earlier in the disease cycle using laser and MIGs devices, and in partnership with our referring optometrists mitigate future progression and avoid advanced disease and crisis management. Patients have the best chance of retaining good vision when treatment halts progression before significant damage occurs.
Most glaucoma is open-angle glaucoma. The disease is a result of pressure inside the eye that is too high for the optic nerve to tolerate, resulting in damage to the nerve which then causes a loss of side or peripheral vision. Unfortunately there is no pain or other symptoms until after vision loss has occurred. That is why glaucoma is called “The Sneak Thief of Sight.” It is a leading cause of blindness, but if caught early it can be controlled. If you are over 40, you should have an eye exam by a doctor of optometry every year or year and a half. If you are African-American, or you have a family member with glaucoma, you at at higher risk for developing glaucoma and should have your eyes examined and dilated and your eye pressure checked every year.
Narrow-angle glaucoma is much less common and is very different from open-angle glaucoma in that eye pressure usually goes up very fast. There is usually severe pain in the eye or brow ache over the eye, along with redness, swelling, haloes around lights and blurred vision. If not treated promptly, this glaucoma produces blindness in the affected eye in a short period of time.