Important Topics: Protect Your Vision

Diabetes, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration, Sports Safety and More!

Diabetes:

People with diabetes—whether they are diet controlled, on pills, or taking insulin—are at risk to develop new blood vessels in the back of their eyes in the retina, or diabetic retinopathy. These new blood vessels are abnormal—the blood vessels leak, break, then bleed, and they can pull your retina off. This type of diabetic retinopathy, called proliferative diabetic retinopathy, can blind you.

Here are Ridgewood Ophthalmology we are delighted to examine, educate, treat, and work with our diabetic patients, keeping in close communication with you and your diabetes doctor about your eyes. We’ll send a full written report to your doctor, to help your doctor manage your diabetes and prevent blindness. Our diabetic patients

 are asked to watch a special educational DVD about diabetes, and are given a special handout about Diabetic Retinopathy.

You can reduce your risk of diabetic retinopathy with good control of your glucose (keeping your Hemoglobin A 1 C below 6.5) . Keep your blood pressure in good control, stop smoking, lower your cholesterol, and follow your diabetes doctor’s instructions carefully. Every diabetic person needs a complete eye exam every year, with special attention to the retina and possible formation of new blood vessels. Early detection and early treatment with laser can prevent loss of vision.

Call to schedule a complete eye exam at Ridgewood Ophthalmology with one of our Board Certified Ophthalmologists at (201) 612 0044.

Glaucoma:

Glaucoma is the “sneak thief of sight”. Glaucoma has no symptoms, but will blind people. Early detection and early treatment, with simple daily drops or with laser, will prevent loss of vision.

Three million people in America have glaucoma, but only about half of them know it. The only way to know if you have glaucoma is a complete eye exam, checking the pressure in your eye, looking at the optic nerve, the corneal thickness, the drainage of the eye (called gonioscopy), and a test called a visual field test to test your peripheral vision.

Here at Ridgewood Ophthalmology, all patients over 18 get the full glaucoma screening—intraocular pressure and measurement of the optic nerve—and visual field testing if needed. In glaucoma, people lose their peripheral, or side vision, first, and their central vision is still perfect, but they are not aware that they have lost their peripheral vision. Glaucoma is an atrophy of the optic nerve which is related to the pressure inside the eyeball.

You are at higher risk of developing glaucoma is you have a family member with glaucoma, if you are African American or have diabetes, or if you have had eye diseases in the past like iritis, or if you are on certain medications like prednisone.

A less common form of glaucoma is called Angle Closure Glaucoma, and you will be tested for this as well; in Angle Closure Glaucoma, you will have severe symptoms of pain, loss of vision, nausea, and headache. Narrow Angle Glaucoma can be treated before you have an attack with a simple laser treatment taking only minutes; if a Narrow Angle Glaucoma attack occurs, it cases blindness in 24 hours and is a medical emergency.

Do you have glaucoma in the family, or haven’t had an eye exam recently? You may be one of those 1 ½ million American who has glaucoma and doesn’t even know it. Call Ridgewood Ophthalmology right here in Bergen County at (201) 612 0044 to schedule your complete eye exam with one of our Board-Certified Ophthalmologists, to make sure you do not have glaucoma.

Macular Degeneration

Ten million Americans have Macular Degeneration, which causes damage to the macula, the part of the retina which gives you the good, sharp vision needed for driving, reading watching T.V., sewing, playing cards, and any other fine work. Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of loss of vision in people over 55. You may notice distortion in straight lines, like warpage in a chain link fence or tennis raquet.

There are two kinds of Macular Degeneration: Wet and Dry. Dry Macular Denergation is the most common, making up about 90% of the case, and causes a gradual distortion and loss of vision over decades. Wet macular degeneration is actual fluid in the macula, which causes sudden loss of vision-- and can be now be treated; it had previously been an untreatable disease.

On your eye exam at Ridgewood Ophthalmology, our Board Certified Ophthalmologists may notice a change in your Amsler Grid,or see drusen, or small desposits in the macula, which are the first sign of macular degeneration. AREDs vitamins, stopping smoking, and making sure you have green leafy vegetables in your diet can stop progression of the drusen or dry macular degeneration. Early detection and treatment of wet macular degeneration can prevent catastrophic visual loss and blindness; “anti-VEGF” drugs called Avastin or Lucentis, injected into the eye, can prevent and sometime recover vision .