Eye Conditions & Diseases

Click here for wonderful educational videos about eye diseases and eye surgeries. Please let our doctors know if you have any questions about these videos.

Cataracts

Cataracts are a clouding of the eye’s natural lens, which lies behind the iris and the pupil. The lens works like a camera lens, focusing light on the back of the eye. With cataracts, your vision may become cloudy, blurry, glare is more bothersome, and colors are not as vibrant. Learn more about Cataracts.

Cataract surgery is a great option when your cataracts are interfering with your normal vision activities. It is a very quick and relatively painless outpatient procedure. For more information on cataract surgery, we recommend looking at the Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute website: www.pcli.com

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is an eye condition that affects the optic nerve. The optic nerve is in the back of the eye and is responsible for sending what the eye sees to the brain. Glaucoma is usually a slowly progressive condition that can lead to tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision) or even blindness if it is not treated. Some types of glaucoma are because the pressure in the eye is to high (like having high blood pressure in the eye) but with other types of glaucoma the eye pressure is normal. In either case, the optic nerve tissue slowly degenerates and disappears.

The initial treatment for glaucoma is eyedrops. Most patients do very well with a daily regimen of eyedrops. For some patients, eyedrops don’t work and then we consider laser surgery. The newest type of glaucoma treatment is combined with cataract surgery and is very promising. Learn more about Glaucoma.

Macular Degeneration

Macular Degeneration occurs in the center of the back of the eye. When the cells in the macula break down, we lose the ability to clearly see straight ahead. So reading, driving, and recognizing faces become very difficult.

There is not a cure for macular degeneration. For the dry forms (dry meaning there is not any bleeding in the back of the eye), special anti-oxidant vitamins are recommended. For the more severe wet forms of AMD (wet meaning there is bleeding in the back of the eye), there are injections that can be done to help improve vision. Learn more about Macular Degeneration.

Other Conditions & Diseases

Did you know? Optometrists can detect many systemic diseases just by looking inside your eye! We will show you pictures of the back of your eye so you can see everything that we see.

• High Blood Pressure: the blood vessels in the back of the eye (the retina) can look abnormal with high blood pressure.
• Diabetes: changes to the back of the eye (the retina) are very common with diabetes. Some of these changes include tiny hemorrhages, lack of oxygen to the blood vessels, large particles from bleeding in the eye, and lack of blood flow to a part of the eye. The amazing and scary thing is that you will never feel these changes happening because there are no nerves inside your eye!
• High Cholesterol: when cholesterol is uncontrolled, small particles can lodge themselves inside a blood vessel which can lead to a lack of blood flow in the back of the eye (the retina).

Please contact us if you have any questions or if you feel you are experiencing any of these symptoms.