Photo By Patricia Deal | Marisol Emerson, certified optometry assistant, demonstrates the Oculus Pentacam which...... read more read more
FORT HOOD, Texas--To help raise awareness glaucoma, the professionals in the CRDAMC Optometry Department want to lay out the good and bad news about the sight-stealing disease.
Glaucoma is an optic neuropathy characterized by progressive damage to retinal ganglion cells. Or, in plain English, glaucoma is a disease in which the little thin wire (optic nerve) that acts as the freeway between an individual’s eyes and the visual processing area of the brain slowly and painlessly stops working.
First the bad news. Without treatment, glaucoma can lead to total blindness. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide; an estimated 60 million people have glaucoma across the globe, according to the Glaucoma Research Foundation. It is the No. 1 cause of blindness in African-Americans with African-Americans being six to eight times more likely to develop glaucoma than other Americans.
“The good news is glaucoma is typically very treatable,” said Maj. Kayla Vickers, an optometrist with CRDAMC’s Bennett Health Clinic. “While there is no cure, the key to treatment and vision preservation is early detection. Unfortunately, glaucoma has virtually no symptoms that would prompt a person to say, ‘Hey, I think I might be coming down with glaucoma. I better get my eyes checked.’ Early detection only comes from having annual eye exams that screen for a multitude of ocular disorders including glaucoma.”
Vickers said that the providers and staff in the CRDAMC Optometry Department take glaucoma seriously.
“Every patient seen in the clinic is screened for glaucoma. Those patients who are at a higher risk because of age, race, family history, high eye pressure or suspicious looking optic nerves will have their eyes dilated and be evaluated with state-of-the-art instruments,” Vickers said, clarifying that high-risk groups include people over 60, family members of those already diagnosed, diabetics and people who are severely nearsighted. The average age of onset is 54 years.
The clinic has the most up-to-date “early warning” technology available, according to Vickers, such as the Oculus Pentacam HR to assess corneal thickness; the Humphrey Field Analyzer 3 with liquid lens technology to measure visual field loss; and the Cirrus Photo 600 capable of taking optic nerve head, macular and fundus photos to better evaluate the retinal nerve fiber layers and surrounding structures. The exam is painless for patients.
“You don’t have to fear a diagnosis of glaucoma. The progression of the disease may be slowed or stopped with one or two eye drops of medicine a day and/or surgery. Our Optometry Department currently has eight providers and Ophthalmology has five providers and all of us are credentialed to diagnose, treat and manage glaucoma,” Vickers said.
Dr. Clarence Vesely, another optometrist at Bennett, echoed Vickers’ comments about regular screening to maintain your ocular health.
“If you’re a person who has not had an eye exam in the last 12 months and thinks, ‘Oh, I see fine,’ remember you can’t detect glaucoma. Only an eye care professional can do that,” Vesely said. “Glaucoma is a thief of sight. Each day it steals from you precious memories; not of what was, but what is to come.”
CRDAMC’s Optometry Department provides services to Active Duty service members and their families and retirees. Please call 254-288-8888 to schedule an appointment at any of the optometry clinics located at Bennett, Russell Collier and Thomas Moore Medical Clinics.
| Date Taken: | 02.03.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2020 14:18 |
| Story ID: | 364122 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 51 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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