Glaucoma
Optic nerve damage from sustained pressure inside the eye — often silent for years.
Glaucoma is the slow, painless death of nerve fibres at the back of the eye, almost always from pressure that has stayed too high for too long. By the time most patients notice anything, the peripheral field has already narrowed — and once the nerve is gone, it does not grow back.
Why it's so often missed.
There's no pain. Central vision stays sharp until very late. The condition is genetic in a meaningful share of patients, which is why we ask about family history at every annual exam. A pressure check and an optic-nerve photo take under two minutes and catch what the chart cannot.
How we treat it.
Most patients do well on a once-daily eye drop. Where drops aren't enough, laser treatments and a growing list of minimally invasive surgical options keep the pressure controlled. The goal is never to reverse glaucoma — it's to stop it where it sits, before it costs you another degree of field.
