Glaucoma Testing & Management
Catching optic nerve damage before you could ever notice it
Glaucoma is a progressive optic neuropathy that destroys nerve fibers from the periphery inward. Central vision is preserved until late in the disease, which is precisely why it goes undetected. Patients routinely arrive with substantial nerve fiber loss and no symptoms whatsoever.
Pressure measurement alone is not sufficient for diagnosis. A significant proportion of glaucoma patients have pressures in the statistically normal range, and many patients with elevated pressure never develop nerve damage. Structural imaging is what closes that gap.
Maestro OCT measures the thickness of the retinal nerve fiber layer and the ganglion cell complex in microns, detecting loss years before it becomes visible on a field test. Topcon Tempo visual field testing then maps the functional consequence.
Managing glaucoma over the long term
Glaucoma is not cured. It is controlled, usually for the rest of a patient's life, and the goal of management is to slow progression enough that vision lasts as long as the patient does.
Treatment most often begins with pressure lowering eye drops. Adherence is the single biggest determinant of outcome and the most common failure point, so we spend real time making the routine practical rather than simply writing a prescription. Where drops are insufficient or poorly tolerated, we coordinate laser or surgical intervention with a glaucoma specialist.
Monitoring continues indefinitely, with imaging and visual fields repeated at intervals set by how aggressive the disease appears. Comparing scans against your own baseline is how progression is caught early enough to act on.
Structural imaging and functional field testing detect optic nerve loss years before symptoms appear, while treatment still protects vision.
