Common eye diseases may or may not have symptoms. However, a professional eye doctor can detect some of these eye diseases even before the patient can realize. They can identify eye problems before they cause damage to the rest of your body or anatomy. For this reason, it is always recommended to go for regular eye exams to enable the early detection of common eye diseases that may lead to vision loss. Regardless, below are some of the most common eye diseases your ophthalmologist or optometrist may uncover in the normal course of an eye exam.
Cataracts
This is perhaps one of the most common eye diseases according to a Boca Raton Fl eye doctor. It often feels as though you are looking through a frosty window because the central part of your field of vision appears obstructed. Cataracts may develop over time, resulting in cloudy vision. They make it very difficult to see things as they are. Cataracts are associated with people aged 60 years and older, but they are often not severe. In many cases, simple cataract surgery in the outpatient division is enough to get rid of cataracts and restore your healthy vision. However, if you choose to delay a cataract surgery, you will only be making your simple daily activities much harder because it may become increasingly difficult to see things clearly and such a delay may cause any significant damage to the patient’s eye.
Glaucoma
Glaucoma is more likely to occur in individuals aged 50 years and older. It is often a gradual process and causes vision loss over time. It also results in increased pressure inside the patient’s eye and may damage the optic nerve. Patients with this disease may experience eye redness, blurred vision, and pain in the eye. Patients are advised to go for regular eye check-ups to monitor any changes in their eye pressure that may warrant the attention of the optometrist. If your optometrist or eye doctor establishes a possible problem in the eye pressure, you may receive eye drops or oral medications to help solve the problem. In some rare cases, the patient may be required to undergo a surgical procedure such as laser eye surgery to treat the problem.
Macular Degeneration
This is also a common eye disease that often affects a larger portion of the American population. MD may cause loss of vision. Common symptoms include deterioration of the retina, which is positioned at the back of the human eye. When that happens, patients become unable to tell images and colors apart because of the loss of connection between the eye that collects the light signals and the brain that interprets the light signals to help identify the object. The optic nerve, which is a branch of nodes that send the signals to the brain, are adversely affected and become unable to perform its job effectively. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for this eye disease.
Diabetic Retinopathy
This form of diabetes affects the eye and individuals with diabetes are at a higher risk. Common symptoms include blurred or total vision loss, which is caused by the high amount of sugar in the patient’s blood. Laser treatment and adhering to a strict diabetic diet can be an effective treatment.