Age Related Macular Degeneration AMD

The leading cause of visual problems among people mostly over 50 years old is Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). It is called macular because it affects the macula.

Macula provides us the ability to have 20/20 vision and color vision. It functions as the center of the retina. Retina is responsible for sensing light and is found at the back of the eye near the optic nerve. It receives light focused by the lens and converts it into neural signals to be sent to the brain for visual recognition.

All AMD begins with the first type of AMD which is dry form. 85% of people with AMD are experiencing this first type. It occurs when drusen forms on the macula. Drusen are yellow deposits of fatty proteins. Soft drusen are larger while hard drusen are smaller. Soft drusen are clustered together while hard drusen are spread out. This causes blind spots or blurry area on the central vision.

The second type of AMD which occurs on 15% of people with AMD is the wet form. It is the formation of abnormal blood vessels under the retina. These blood vessels leak blood and fluid also causing scarring under the macula. This leads to visual distortion due to blind spots or blurry area on the central vision. Things are also seen as less bright and straight lines start to appear as wavy. This leads to dimming and distortion of vision.

Here at Accent Eye Care, we offer eye examinations that would help you on the early diagnosis of AMD and support you on slowing down its progress and minimizing the risk of vision loss in order to lessen the disruption of visual activities required for cooking, driving, fixing things, looking at faces and reading. Have your eyes examined at Accent Eyes so we can treat your Age Related Macular Degeneration.