In the United States, glaucoma affects about 3 million people. It is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. Patients with glaucoma do not exhibit early symptoms, therefore 50% of them are unaware they have it.

In most cases, how often you need imaging and ERG depends on the severity and stage of your glaucoma. Our eye doctor may recommend that you see them every six months or every year if you have mild glaucoma or are more likely to develop it. However, if you suffer from more severe glaucoma, our eye doctor may want to see you every two to four months or in some cases just about every month. So the answer of how often to get testing done really depends on your glaucoma's stage and severity.

How is glaucoma diagnosed?

If you suspect you have glaucoma, our eye doctor will perform different imaging tests on you as a baseline to compare with future images. The first thing they do in a glaucoma assessment is measure your eye pressure. After measuring your eye pressure, they examine your optic nerves with a dilated fundus examination.

How is an OCT used to diagnose and manage glaucoma?

Several imaging tests are available at Amplify EyeCare that set us apart as a specialty center for glaucoma patients. We have invested in one of the most advanced OCT machines that allow our eye doctors to examine the retina's different layers. In glaucoma, the optic nerve is damaged, and the way that they assess this is by looking at the thinning of the nerve fiber layers.

The OCT can help our eye doctors to measure how thin certain areas of your retina are. It also provides information on your macula. Other information that the OCT gives them is, for instance, if you have a specific type of narrow angle glaucoma in which the drainage area inside of your eye is too narrow, resulting in an increase in eye pressure, which then damages your optic nerve. The OCT allows them to see how narrow or open your drainage areas are.

Moreover, it provides information about your corneal thickness, which is important when following up on glaucoma patients. When your corneas are thinner than average, that means that your eye pressure is actually higher than what they are reading, which is important for them when following on a glaucoma patient, so the OCT provides them with valuable information.

What is visual field testing for glaucoma?

Amplify EyeCare offers visual field testing as well. Through this, they can determine how well your peripheral vision functions. A visual field report may describe a variety of visual field defects associated with glaucoma. Thus, they test you for any signs of glaucomatous vision problems.

How is an ERG used to diagnose and manage glaucoma?

Another imaging device that is available at Amplify EyeCare is the RETeval ERG. The device provides comprehensive information to our eye doctor about your retina's performance and measures both the speed and strength of the electrical response generated by your retina. In addition, if the report notices any signs of stress on your retina, or if there are any abnormalities, for example, if they do the procedure for glaucoma, and it shows deviation from a standard norm that compares you to a population of people your age, they may want to intervene sooner.

They may want to monitor you more closely and see you every three to four months instead of every six months if:

• You are still glaucoma suspect
• Your eye pressure is borderline high, which is still not high, but borderline
• If you have a strong family history of glaucoma
• If you have other risk factors