World Glaucoma Week (7-13 March 2021)

Raise Awareness! Treat your eyes. Book a test and save your sight from glaucoma blindness.

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of eye diseases where vision is lost due to damage to the optic nerve. It causes irreversible vision loss due to damage to the optic nerve. The loss of sight is usually gradual and a considerable amount of peripheral (side) vision may be lost before there is an awareness of any problem. Unfortunately there is no cure for glaucoma, and vision loss is irreversible.

While anyone may develop glaucoma, some people are at a higher risk including those with a family history of the disease and anyone over the age of 50.

While there are different types of glaucoma, Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma (POAG) is the most common, accounting for 90% of glaucoma cases in Australia.

Nicknamed the ‘sneak thief of sight’ there are no obvious symptoms in the early stages of POAG. Damage progresses slowly and destroys vision gradually, starting with peripheral vision. This early vision loss often goes unnoticed until a significant amount of damage to the optic nerve has already occurred.

On the other hand Acute Angle-Closure Glaucoma can cause severe eye pain associated with nausea and vomiting, headache, watery eyes, sudden onset of blurred vision or seeing halos around light. This is a medical emergency and immediate treatment is required.

While vision loss can’t be restored, early diagnosis and treatment can delay or halt the progression of the disease. That is why it’s so important to detect the problem as early as possible.

Treating your eyes to a simple test is a super easy way to check for glaucoma.

When you consider 300,000 Australians have glaucoma, and 50% of them don’t even know they have it, why wouldn’t you treat your eyes to a check-up? Left undiagnosed glaucoma can lead to blindness. If detected early, glaucoma can be treated and vision loss prevented.

You treat your skin, your heart, yourself – so why not treat your eyes? Book a test with your local optometrist today – and save your sight!

For more details, visit Glaucoma Australia.