Vision screening is vital when it comes to the prevention of glaucoma.
"Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve, usually associated elevated eye pressure. And what happens to people, is the eye pressure goes up high enough to damage the optic nerve very slowly. And that damage, if it's unchecked goes on to cause blindness," said Dr. George Nardin.
Contrary to what you may have heard, there are different kinds of glaucoma. There is open angle glaucoma which is most common.
'There's narrow angle glaucoma or angle closure, there are congenital glaucoma, youngsters born with glaucoma, there are glaucomas associated with eye infections and eye inflammations and things of that sort," said Dr. Nardin.
You heard Dr. Nardin say that glaucoma is basically caused by elevated pressure in the eye. Thanks to laser technology and other treatments, along with early screening, glaucoma can be eliminated early. There are certain segments of the population that should consider regular screening.
"It's much more common in blacks than in Caucasians. We think it may be much more common in the Japanese-Americans, particularly here in Hawaii. But there are occasional cases of congenital glaucoma - it's pretty rare."
The important thing to remember is that - like high blood pressure - glaucoma is often called the silent thief of sight. There may be an eventual narrowing of vision, like looking through a tunnel, but when that happens, Dr. Nardin says, it's too late to save a person's vision.
"A lot of the glaucoma we see actually has what we consider to be low pressure or normal pressure. We don't fully understand the mechanisms of it but we think in those cases, it may well be very susceptible nerve to lower pressure or poor circulation to the optic nerve that causes it."
