Glaucoma Diagnosis & Management for Our Patients

An eye exam from Eyes on Chagrin places a strong emphasis on your ocular health. We recommend annual exams for all our patients, including children, adults, and those with diabetes, to protect against eye diseases.

Glaucoma is an eye disease that causes profoundly damaging effects and progresses slowly and painlessly. In the year 2010, 1.9% of Americans 40 and over were affected by the most common type of glaucoma. Glaucoma is often associated with elevated eye pressure, but some types of glaucoma occur even when eye pressure is normal.

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Types of Glaucoma

There are several different subtypes of glaucoma. While the resulting damage to sensitive tissues (especially your eye’s retina) are similar, there are differences between the types, including the root causes.

Open-Angle Glaucoma

The eyes’ drainage canals connect the inside of your eyes’ aqueous chamber to their surface. These canals are made up of a meshwork that allows fluid to pass through and flow out. If the canals remain open as required for healthy eyes, but the meshwork clogs up, fluid transfer slows, and intraocular pressure slowly builds up to dangerous levels.

This excess pressure causes progessive damage to the optic nerve. It’s silent, gradual, and its effects tend to be final. Open-angle glaucoma makes up 90% of all cases.

Angle-Closure Glaucoma

The drainage canals between your eye’s iris and cornea allow the fluid in your eye to drain as long as the angle remains open. But if this angle closes, no fluid can escape your inner eye, leading to a dangerously fast pressure buildup that requires immediate intervention. At our eye exams, we watch for this condition carefully.

Angle-closure glaucoma is a medical emergency. Please contact us immediately if you experience the following symptoms:

Severe headache
Eye pain
Nausea and vomiting
Blurred vision
Halos around lights
Eye redness

Normal-Tension Glaucoma

Normal-tension glaucoma is uncommon, and the underlying causes aren’t fully understood.

Patients with normal-tension glaucoma experience the optic nerve damage characteristic of glaucoma but without elevated intraocular pressure.

Keeping an Eye Out for Glaucoma

Routine annual eye exams are essential for the early diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma. If necessary, we’ll refer you to our most trusted ophthalmologists for surgery. Let us keep your eyes and vision whole and healthy!

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