January is Glaucoma Awareness Month

Jan­u­ary is rec­og­nized as Nation­al Glau­co­ma Aware­ness Month. Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Oph­thal­mol­o­gist and Glau­co­ma Spe­cial­ist Dr. David Phillips said this month is a good time to bring aware­ness to the disease.

Glau­co­ma is a dis­ease that dam­ages the optic nerve. It usu­al­ly hap­pens when flu­id builds up in the front part of the eye. That extra flu­id increas­es the pres­sure in the eye, dam­ag­ing the optic nerve.

“With most glau­co­ma, there are no warn­ing signs or obvi­ous symp­toms in the ear­ly stages,” explained Dr. Phillips. ​“As the dis­ease pro­gress­es, blind spots devel­op in the periph­er­al (side) vision. This dam­age is gen­er­al­ly irre­versible, which is why ear­ly detec­tion with rou­tine eye exams are so important.”

For those who have glau­co­ma, there are options to slow or pre­vent fur­ther vision loss.

“While there is no cure for glau­co­ma, there are a mul­ti­tude of med­ical and sur­gi­cal treat­ment options all geared towards low­er­ing the eye pres­sure and pre­vent­ing blind­ness,” he said.

Com­pre­hen­sive and reg­u­lar eye exams are impor­tant in detect­ing glau­co­ma. Dr. Phillips said the eye care team at QMG is here for patients who have concerns.

“As always, our oph­thalmic team at QMG would be hap­py to eval­u­ate and rec­om­mend treat­ment options for any indi­vid­ual patient with spe­cif­ic ques­tions or con­cerns,” he said.

For more infor­ma­tion or to sched­ule an appoint­ment, vis­it qmqeyes​.com or call (217) 222-EYES (3937).