COMMON
DISEASES

Glaucoma is a group of eye disorders that can result in permanent blindness, and is almost never caught by the patient based on symptoms alone. Think of glaucoma as a 3 step process. Step 1: the eye's pressure is too high for the optic nerve to handle. Step 2: The optic nerve gets damaged from the high pressure. Step 3: When the optic nerve is damaged, you lose side vision progressively until nothing is left. Thankfully, there are treatment options, and they work best when caught early.

Your retina is the sensor that gives you vision. Within that sensor, there's a specific part called the "macula" that is responsible for your central vision (i.e. when you look at something). When the macula stops working the way it should, or degenerates, your central vision gets distorted, blurry, and sometimes disappears permanently. This is called AMD, and comes in 4 main stages. Stages 1-3 are classified as Dry AMD, which around 80% of AMD patients have, and is where you slowly lose central vision. Stage 4 is classified as Wet AMD and can result in severe vision loss and blindness.

Inside the eye behind the iris is the "crystalline lens". Think of it like a glasses lens but inside your eye. Over time, that lens gets foggy and thicker, i.e. a cataract. It's simply caused by age, and everybody who lives long enough gets cataracts. They cause an overall haze and make it more difficult to see in the dark, and also make you more sensitive to glare. Treatment is as simple as what you do when your glasses get foggy - you replace the lens: that's cataract surgery!

Keratoconus is one of the most common corneal diseases and is the result of a weak and thin cornea that now bulges outward like a "cone". Because the cornea has this new cone shape, its astigmatism is amplified and everything looks almost double. Light sensitivity is increased, and glasses can't correct for this extra astigmatism. Keratoconus patients need special contact lenses, usually scleral lenses, to correct their vision. Since keratoconus typically progresses over a 10-20 year span, corneal cross-linking surgery is recommended to "freeze" the cornea in place to prevent progression.

Dry Eye Syndrome is actually a group of diseases that result in eye "dryness". Dry Eye is caused by not enough tear production, the tears evaporating too quickly, unhealthy tears, or a combination. Dryness can feel dry but it can also feel like burning, stinging, itchiness, fatigue, a foreign body sensation, and more. Treatment focuses on finding the root cause(s), and creating a treatment plan tailored to the patient.

The Uvea is a collection of parts of the eye that make up a certain region. When one of those parts gets inflamed, it's called uveitis. Uveitis typically causes pain, increased light sensitivity, and redness, but it is not an infection. It's been associated with systemic and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and sarcoidosis.

Strabismus, or "crossed eye", is when one eye doesn't look at the same spot as the other eye. It can be one eye, or switch between either eye. It can be all the time or just sometimes. Some patients are able to get the eye to look at the same spot with enough effort, others require vision therapy and/or surgery. Just because a patient has a crossed eye, doesn't necessarily mean it's a "lazy eye" (amblyopia).

Amblyopia, or "lazy eye", is when one eye can't see as good as the other, no matter what correction we do (glasses, contact lenses, and/or surgery). That eye's potential is just not as much as the other eye. A person develops amblyopia in their childhood and it becomes permanent if not treated early. The brain decides to favor one eye and ignore the other eye, and if you don't use it, you lose it. The brain will turn off an eye for any of 3 reasons: 1, there is a disease blocking vision. 2, there is a crossed eye not being used. 3, the prescription is much more different in that eye. Just because a patient has a lazy eye, doesn't necessarily mean it's a "crossed eye" (strabismus).