Our eyes are important in so many ways in our life, that when something happens to our eyes or threatens to impact our sight, it can seem overwhelming to say the least. Dr Chaulk and Alpine Eye Care understand how important your sight is to you. For this reason, Alpine Eye Care specializes in diagnosing and treating many conditions which may arise during your lifetime, including one possible condition known as Age-Related Macular Degeneration or AMD.
What Is It?
Age-Related Macular Degeneration is a breakdown of the Macula causing areas of blurriness, blackness or distortion. This may make it difficult to see and do things including driving or even recognizing who or what we are looking at. As we get older, this is one of the most common types of vision loss which occur in people over 55.
How Does It Work?
Light rays enter they eye through the cornea, then the pupil and finally, the lens. As these light rays pass through a normal eye, they are focused onto the retina in the back of the eye. The retina is made up of two areas, the peripheral retina and the macular retina. Each part is used for a different part of your vision. The peripheral is what gives us our wide or side area vision and the Macula is what allows us to see things clearly in front of us, our pinpoint vision. If you are suffering from AMD, you will have changes occurring to your macular retina, which may steadily get worse as time passes.
How Do I Know And What Do I Do?
Like many conditions of the eye, being able to treat them effectively is often dependent on catching it early. For this reason, it is important that you monitor your eyes and make sure that you get tested right away if you notice any changes. One way that you can see if any changes may be occurring to your macular retina is to use the AMSLER GRID. This is a test that you can use even at home. Simply a piece of paper with a series of lines and a dot allow you to look for any possible abnormalities one eye at a time in your line of vision. If the lines appears wavy, missing or if you see a black or dark spot, you may be suffering from early macular degeneration. If you have any concerns, you need to schedule an appointment for further testing and treatment immediately.
If you find that you have concerns with your vision, there are very specialized tests and treatments that your doctor will use to both diagnose and then to treat your AMD. You can learn more about the different types of AMD that you may encounter and the techniques that your doctor may choose to use by watching this video, Age-Related Macular Degeneration.
If you are having trouble seeing and believe that you may be suffering from AMD, contact Alpine Eye Care right away to set up your appointment. You may schedule an appointment by visiting the Scheduling page on our website or if you would prefer, calling us at 1.877.SEE.2020. Your eyes are important, don’t just assume that everything is ok, make an appointment to find out for sure.