Glaucoma Treatment

GLAUCOMA TREATMENT

Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness around the world for people over the age of 60, but blindness can be avoided if it's diagnosed and treated in a timely manner. At East Texas Eye Associates, we recommend that all our patients get regular eye exams to allow our eye doctors to diagnose glaucoma cases as early as possible.

What is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a disease that damages the eye's optic nerve, and it generally happens due to increased fluid pressure inside the front part of the eyeball. If the drainage duct gets blocked in anyway, pressure can build up inside the eye and cause damage to the optic nerve. The optic nerve carries images from the retina to the brain, and optic nerve damage can directly affects the way you see things.

There are other, less common, types of glaucoma that happen suddenly and produce intense symptoms, but the most common type of glaucoma can linger in your eyes for months or years before developing any symptoms at all. This is why regular eye examinations are key to good eye health.

Glaucoma Treatment Options

The damage glaucoma does is permanent and can't be reversed. This is why it's so important that your ophthalmologist in Odessa check your eyes regularly. It's very common to diagnose glaucoma before any damage has been done, which allows glaucoma treatment options to prevent damage from happening. We offer a range of treatment options, depending on how advanced your glaucoma is. Some treatment options we offer are:

  • Eye drop medicine, which is the most common treatment available. These drops reduce pressure in the eye, preventing damage from happening
  • Laser surgery, which helps open up the drainage angle, allowing more fluid to drain from the eye
  • Traditional surgery, which is used to physically create a new drainage channel in the eye
Successful treatment for glaucoma is a team effort between you and your ophthalmologist. Preventing damage to your eyesight can only happen if you follow your doctor's instructions completely. Use your eye drops exactly as directed, and follow up with further office visits as often as recommended.

Glaucoma is a serious, irreversible condition that can cause blindness if not properly diagnosed and treated. Even so, many people don't understand what this condition does to the eyes, whether they are at risk for it, or how to safeguard their vision against it. Check out these answers to some frequently asked glaucoma questions here at East Texas Eye Associates.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT GLAUCOMA

Glaucoma is a serious, irreversible condition that can cause blindness if not properly diagnosed and treated. Even so, many people don't understand what this condition does to the eyes, whether they are at risk for it, or how to safeguard their vision against it. Check out these answers to some frequently asked glaucoma questions here at East Texas Eye Associates.

What Is Glaucoma?

Glaucoma is a broad term that refers to the destruction of the optic nerves due to any of a number of possible causes. Most cases involve elevated eye fluid pressure that damages the nerve fibers.

How Does Glaucoma Occur?

The eye normally regulates its fluid pressure by expressing excess fluid through a drainage angle between the iris and the cornea. If this area cannot drain fluid efficiently, the fluid will build up in the eye until the pressure damages the optic nerves.

What Are the Two Main Kinds of Glaucoma?

Primary open-angle glaucoma
This is the most common type. It happens gradually, where the eye does not drain fluid as well as it should. As a result, eye pressure builds and starts to damage the optic nerve. This type of glaucoma is semi-painless and causes little to no vision changes at first. Regular eye exams are extremely important to find early signs of damage to their optic nerve.

Angle-closure glaucoma ("closed-angle glaucoma" or "narrow-angle glaucoma")
This type happens when someone's iris is very close to the drainage angle in their eye, therefor the iris ends up blocking the drainage angle. When the drainage angle gets completely blocked, eye pressure rises quickly. It is a true eye emergency. You should call your ophthalmologist right away or you might go blind!
Here are the signs of an acute angle-closure glaucoma attack:

  • Vision is suddenly blurry
  • Have severe eye pain
  • Have a headache
  • Feel sick to your stomach (nausea)
  • Throw up (vomit)
  • See rainbow-colored rings or halos around lights


Angle-closure glaucoma develops it slowly in some people which is called chronic angle-closure glaucoma. There are no symptoms at first, so they don't know they have it until the damage is severe or they have an attack.

How To Treat Glaucoma?

Here at East Texas Eye Associates we can help you manage your glaucoma in a number of ways. Eye drops, sometimes paired with oral medications, can control your eye fluid production and improve drainage over time. We may also recommend lifestyle changes and medical treatment for any underlying health problems. Every Dose Every Day can help save your sight!