January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month. Dr. Janet Lee explains new treatments to help combat vision loss caused by glaucoma.

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month. As the leading cause of blindness, experts consider it the “silent thief of sight” because the symptoms can creep up on you.  

But there’s promising new treaments for the eye disease. 

Think of the optic nerve as a cable that connects your brain to your eyes. If that signal is disrupted it can cause vision loss. 

The trouble is, in early stages glaucoma is very subtle. Most people aren’t even aware they’re losing vision.  

By the time its diagnosed, the vision loss is permanent, and there is no cure.  

Doctor Janet Lee with Shepherd Eye Center says lowering pressure in the eye is critical to slowing down vision loss. 

“We can also do that with selective laser trabeculoplasty or SLT — another procedure to lower the eye pressure. “This works well with people who have trouble putting in their drops,” Dr. Lee said. “Finally, we have surgical treatments, exciting treatments that have less complications and better recovery times than traditional glaucoma surgeries.” 

It is estimated that more than 3 million people in the United States have glaucoma and half of those do not even know they have it.  

People who are at a higher risk of getting glaucoma include those with a family history and are of African, Hispanic or Asian Heritage.  

So, even if you have no symptoms or risk factors for eye disease, you should get a baseline eye exam at 40.  

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/health/health-watch-promising-new-treatments-for-glaucoma/