What are the Symptoms of Cataracts and Glaucoma?
Cataract is a vision-threatening condition that deteriorates gradually to cause blindness. Glaucoma is also a vision-compromising problem that can lead to blindness if left untreated. You may become vulnerable to these conditions at any age. However, they are most prevalent among aged people. What are the symptoms of cataracts and glaucoma? Let us delve into this topic and understand the facts.
Cataracts – An Overview
Cataracts are pretty common in older people. This condition occurs when proteins cloud the crystalline lens in your eyes. Seeing through a cloudy lens affects the quality of your vision. Since cataracts develop gradually, you may not notice this problem early on. Over time, you will experience difficulty in reading, driving at night, and other vision-related issues. You must opt for a full optometric eye exam even when noticing minor vision problems.
Symptoms of Cataracts
Most people experience a dim, blurry, or cloudy vision. Night blindness is a highly prevalent symptom among cataract patients. Other common symptoms include light sensitivity, glare sensitivity, halos around lights, colour fading, frequent changes in eyeglass prescription, and double vision in one eye.
Glaucoma – An Overview
When excessive fluid pressure builds up in your eyes, you will become vulnerable to glaucoma. A fluid known as aqueous humor is what increases the pressure. This condition affects your optic nerve and leads to critical vision-related issues and even blindness gradually. In fact, overproduction or draining of aqueous humor through the tissues results in intraocular pressure, causing damage to the optic nerve.
In the initial stage, proteins cloud only a tiny part of your lens. As the condition worsens, clouding becomes widespread and deteriorates your eye health. Eventually, it causes blindness. So, don’t wait for this condition to deteriorate. Seek the help of an optometrist to address the problem immediately.
Symptoms of Glaucoma
The common symptoms of glaucoma are redness in the eye, seeing halos around lights, blurred vision, vomiting and nausea, eye pain, severe headache, and tunnel vision. If you notice any of these symptoms, visit an experienced optometrist to conduct a full optometric eye exam.
What are the Symptoms of Cataracts and Glaucoma? – Common Ones
Blurred vision is a common symptom of cataracts and glaucoma. Other shared symptoms include reduced night vision and halos around the light. The fundamental difference between cataracts and glaucoma is the affected eye area. Cataract affects the lens in the front part of the eye. On the other hand, glaucoma damages the optic nerve located in the back of the eye. An optometrist is the best person available to deliver permanent solutions to these problems.