Age Related Macular Degeneration: What Are the Treatment Options?
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is an eye disorder that can blur sharp vision. It makes it difficult for patients to drive, read properly, and do other everyday tasks. This age-related disorder affects the macula and occurs mainly in people above 50 age.
Early AMD does not trigger any symptoms. Thus, do not wait for your vision to change. Also, AMD occurs very slowly in some people. According to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, there are three phases of macular degeneration – intermediate, early, and late.
What Are the Symptoms?
The changes due to age-related macular degeneration are gradual. The main signs include blurred central vision, even when the patient wears glasses. However, the peripheral vision is not affected at all.
What Causes AMD?
The exact cause of age-related macular degeneration is unknown. However, you are at high risk for AMD as you get older. It is associated with many risk factors. It includes smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, inactivity, and a family history of AMD. That is why it’s best to:
- Quit smoking
- Eat healthy food
- Exercise regularly
What Are the Diverse Types of Macular Degeneration?
AMD has two forms – dry and wet:
- Dry AMD
- Wet AMD
Dry macular degeneration is caused by aging and thinning of macular tissues, or pigment collection in the macula. The symptoms may not occur for 10 years after the onset. It is diagnosed by yellow-colored spots that start collecting in and around the macula.
Early stages of dry AMD can be treated using high-dosage formulations of zinc and anti-oxidants. This prevents age-related macular degeneration to progress to a more advanced stage. Once it reaches the advanced stage, no treatment can restore the loss of vision.
In wet macular degeneration, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath the retina of the eye and leak fluid as well as blood. This triggers permanent damage to photoreceptors in the macula and also creates a central blind spot in the visual field of the affected individual.
How Will the Eye Doctor Check for AMD?
Eye doctors check patients for age-related macular degeneration as a part of the dilated eye examination. This exam is painless and easy. The expert doctor will ask you to dilate people using eye drops. This may cause your eyesight to become sensitive to light and blurry for several hours.
After that, the professional find out AMD and other eye problem symptoms. If you have never had AMD before, It’s worth requesting someone trusted to accompany you to your home after your exam.
The eye professional may even recommend you for OCT (optical coherence tomogram). It allows the doctor to see the back of your eye by having images of the eye using a special machine.
What’s the Treatment for AMD?
There is no cure for age-related macular degeneration. However, the treatment options available make the eye disorder slow and prevent loss of vision. Eye check-ups on a regular basis are advised to determine macular degeneration before vision loss starts.
If you are diagnosed with late or intermediate AMD, your eye doctor advises you of diverse treatment options. The experts will offer you excellent tips and tricks to manage AMD.
Your treatment options include:
- Laser Therapy
- Anti-Angiogenic Drugs
- Photodynamic Laser Therapy
- Low Vision Aids
Sometimes, your eye doctor may advise you of laser therapy. It includes the use of high energy laser light beam that destroys growing abnormal blood vessels in the eyes due to age-related macular degeneration.
Eye professional injects anti-angiogenic drugs into the eyes of the patient. This helps in stopping new blood vessels from creating and blocking the leakage from abnormal ones that leads to wet macular degeneration. This treatment is effective in restoring vision loss from AMD. However, patients need to get their treatment repeated for better eye health.
This AMD treatment uses a light-sensitive drug (Veteporfin) to damage abnormal eye blood vessels. The eye doctor in Castle Rock, CO inserts medicine into your blood to allow the abnormal blood vessels to absorb them. After that, the experts shine a laser light into the eyes to activate the drug.
You can buy devices that have special lenses that enlarge pictures of objects nearby.
If you think you have AMD, get the treatment for age related macular degeneration in Castle Rock, CO today.