Glaucoma Awareness: Risk Factors, Symptoms, and Prevention

Glaucoma, often symptomless, can cause vision loss.

Glaucoma is a serious eye condition that affects millions of people worldwide, and it often goes unnoticed until it reaches an advanced stage. To protect your vision, it’s essential to raise awareness about glaucoma, understand its risk factors, recognize its symptoms, and explore preventive measures. In this article, we’ll delve into glaucoma awareness, shedding light on what you need to know to safeguard your eye health.

Understanding Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause irreversible vision loss by damaging the optic nerve. This damage is typically associated with increased intraocular pressure (pressure inside the eye). Glaucoma often develops slowly and without noticeable symptoms, earning it the nickname “the silent thief of sight.” The two most common types of glaucoma are open-angle glaucoma and angle-closure glaucoma.

Know the Risk Factors

Several factors can increase your risk of developing glaucoma:

Age: The risk of glaucoma increases with age, especially after the age of 40.
Family History: A family history of glaucoma raises your risk.
Race/Ethnicity: African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians have a higher risk of certain types of glaucoma.
High Intraocular Pressure (IOP): Elevated eye pressure is a significant risk factor.
Thin Corneas: Thin corneas are associated with a higher risk of glaucoma.
Diabetes: People with diabetes have an increased risk of developing glaucoma.

Recognizing Glaucoma Symptoms

Glaucoma often progresses without noticeable symptoms until it reaches advanced stages. However, some individuals may experience:

Blurred Vision: Gradual loss of peripheral vision or tunnel vision.
Eye Pain or Redness: Typically, this occurs in cases of acute angle-closure glaucoma.
Halos Around Lights: Seeing halos around lights, especially at night.
Headaches: Frequent headaches, particularly accompanied by eye discomfort.

Preventing Glaucoma and Protecting Your Vision

While you can’t always prevent glaucoma, you can take steps to reduce your risk and protect your vision:

Regular Eye Exams: Routine eye exams are crucial for early detection and intervention. At Invision Eye Clinic in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, we offer comprehensive adult and child eye exams to monitor your eye health.
Manage Your Health: Control conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure that can increase your risk of glaucoma.
Healthy Lifestyle: A balanced diet, regular exercise, and not smoking can help maintain overall eye health.

At Invision Eye Clinic, We’re Here for You

Located in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, Invision Eye Clinic is committed to helping you maintain optimal eye health. Our services include:

Adult and Child Eye Exams: We provide comprehensive eye exams for individuals of all ages, ensuring that your entire family receives the care they need.
Eye Wear: If vision correction is necessary, we offer a wide selection of eyeglasses and frames to suit your style and visual needs.
Contact Lenses: For those who prefer contact lenses, we provide fittings and various options for vision correction.

Don’t take your vision for granted; prioritize your eye health and schedule regular eye exams at Invision Eye Clinic. Together, we can raise awareness about glaucoma and take steps to protect your precious sense of sight.

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Our Hours

Monday – Friday: 11am – 6pm

Saturday – 12pm – 4pm

Sunday – Closed

Our Services

Adult Eye Exam

At Invision Eye Clinic we recommend that every adult from the age of 19 to 65 have a comprehensive eye exam every year. As we get older, there is a higher chance to develop ocular conditions such as cataracts,  glaucoma, and macular degeneration. For this reason, an annual eye exam is all the more important for adults over the age of 65. An annual eye exam is also recommended for anyone with a systemic condition like diabetes or multiple sclerosis where there can be a significant impact on vision and ocular health.

Our doctors strive to provide outstanding eye care with visual solutions that are custom designed to meet each patients’ individual needs. Our experienced staff will then work one on one with each patient to find the glasses and lens options that best suits their respective lifestyle.

Child Eye Exam

At Invision Eye Clinic we recommend children have their first eye exam by the age of 3, and then yearly thereafter. With every child, we strive to support them with their visual development and help them meet the visual demands of the world around them.

During your child’s eye exam, our doctors will assess them for near-sightedness (myopia), far-sightedness (hyperopia), an eye turn (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia) and other ocular pathologies. We will also assess your child’s eye movement (tracking) skills, and the coordination of their eyes while they are performing visual tasks.

It is important to remember that your child does not need to be able to read or to identify letters to have an eye examination. Our tests are designed for all ages and provide vital information about your child’s eye health.

Dry Eye

Dry eyes can show up in various different forms; red eyes, watery eyes, itchy eyes, tired or uncomfortable vision. When the delicate balance of tears on the eye is unbalanced, a cascade of these symptoms can present. Crustiness around the eyes in the morning and chronic styes can also be traced back to a dry eye problem. The impact of our habits and environment cannot be overlooked. Our habits, environment and changes in season can all play a role in severity of our symptoms.

At Invision Eye Clinic, each exam includes an evaluation to not only identify potential dry eye, but to also investigate the possible causes and factors that have contributed to it.

For patients who are suffering from more advanced cases of dry eye, we offer in depth dry eye testing that investigates the root causes of the disease. We can develop a treatment plan that will involve both the management of symptoms and a preventative maintenance protocol.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a disease affecting how the body uses or produces insulin, a hormone that controls blood glucose (sugar) levels. Those suffering from diabetes are at risk of developing various other health issues, including impacts to their vision and eye health.

At our clinic, we implement the latest OCT technology to monitor and assess the impact of diabetes in the eye so that vision can be kept at optimal levels. Our diabetic eye exams not only include digital retinal imaging to look for diabetic changes, but also an internal sub-surface scan to create a detailed map of the eye. When required, our doctors can also use OCT angiography to map out individual blood vessels in the eye to look for even the earliest signs of damage from diabetes.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a slow progressing disease and can often go unnoticed without regular testing. It involves an increase in eye pressure that can slowly damage the optic nerve inside the eye, causing vision loss. If left undiagnosed and untreated, it can easily lead to blindness.

At our clinic, we screen each and every patient with an OCT scan of their optic nerve to assess the risks of glaucoma. For patients who are at risk or who are diagnosed with glaucoma, comprehensive eye exams and visual field tests are crucial alongside more detailed OCT scans.

Glaucoma can be a confusing and stressful disease for patients. At our clinic, our doctors take the time to perform the necessary tests and discuss all the treatment options with our patients.

Eye Wear

At Invision Eye Clinic attention to detail is the key feature in dispensing personalized eyewear suited to your visual needs. Prior to dispensing, each order is inspected by our opticians to ensure accuracy & quality.

From Hand Made Boutique Eyewear to big names in the fashion industry, we carry a wide variety of colours and styles to fit every age group and taste. We make sure that our inventory is fresh and current throughout the year.

Contact Lenses

At Invision Eye Clinic our doctors can help you find the contact lenses that right for your eyes. Whether you have an active lifestyle, don’t like the look or feel of glasses, or just want something part time for social occasions, our optometrists are here to help.

First time contact lens wearer? Worried if contacts are the right solution for you? Rest assured, at Invision Eye Clinic, we take the time to perform an individual trial fit of each contact lens to make sure we have the right lens for each patient. We have a wide selection of contact lens brands and styles, and are confident that we can meet your visual needs.

Our Technology

At Invision Eye Clinic, we strive to provide the highest level of eye care. To help us achieve this goal, we have invested in state-of-the-art technology. Our integrated electronic medical records enable you to book your appointments online and have your third-party medical insurance submitted electronically at the time of your visit. All our patient records are stored using encrypted security measures and in compliance to the privacy policies within the health industry.

Our OCT retinal imaging camera takes a detailed scan of your retina allowing for early detection of many retinal diseases. Retinal imaging also allows for making close comparisons and watching for trend patterns between scans so that changes in the eyes can be monitored over time. The OCT has enabled eye care professionals to detect and monitor the subtle changes that can occur in diabetic retinopathy, hypertensive retinopathy, macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinal toxicity, and multiple sclerosis.

Visual field testing is done at our clinic through the world of virtual reality. With our portable VR headset, we are able to accurately and quickly perform all types of visual field tests. Alongside this, the wearable technology also allows us to perform screenings, colour vision, and pupillometry measurements right in the headset.