During January’s Glaucoma Awareness Month, ophthalmologists and the Lions Sight & Hearing Center at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital eye center urge everyone who is at risk for glaucoma to get a complete eye exam.
Glaucoma, a potentially blinding disease, is the second most common cause of blindness in the United States.
There is no cure for glaucoma, but vision loss can usually be prevented or slowed if treatment is started early.
The best way to protect yourself from vision loss because of glaucoma is to know your risk factors and to have your eyes examined at recommended intervals.
Those at highest risk for glaucoma include:
» People older than age 50
» Blacks older than age 40
» People with diabetes (exam every year)
» Individuals who have experienced a serious eye injury
» Anyone with a family history of glaucoma
At first there are usually no symptoms, but as the disease progresses a person with glaucoma may notice his or her vision gradually failing with blurred vision, presence of halos around lights, loss of peripheral vision and difficulty focusing on objects.
The Lions Sight & Hearing Center offers free glaucoma screening using the puff tonometer where a small puff of air is sent onto the cornea to ascertain the eye pressure’s numerical reading. A high pressure in the eye is a risk factor for developing glaucoma.
Screenings are available preferably by appointment between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Mondays and 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays. Call 805.569.8264.
— Jean Mangus is executive director of the Lions Sight & Hearing Center.
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