What is glaucoma and what are glaucoma symptoms?

Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve. It is a progressive disease, as it comes on gradually with time, ultimately causing a loss of neural tissue from the optic nerve head.

This loss of tissue is permanent and can result in the onset of visual impairment, usually involving areas of your peripheral vision and building up over time.

There are some major risk factors associated with glaucoma, primarily age. Growing older means that you’re at a higher risk of getting glaucoma. Your family history is also important; it gives you four times higher risk of developing glaucoma if you have a first-degree member of the family with glaucoma. Your ethnicity is also important because glaucoma is more common in African Caribbeans and Asians, and some types of glaucoma are more common in Asians.

The early onset or risk factors for the disease are typically characterised by no symptoms and are usually identified by your local community optician, who can identify some features that raise suspicion.

If you’re at all concerned about glaucoma, or if some of the descriptions in this blog post describe you, then contact us to book a VisionSafe eye check.