Live Life Team
Macular Degeneration is a painless eye condition that causes gradual loss of central vision and affects regular activities like reading, writing and driving. Macular degeneration occurs when macula (a part of the eye enabling central vision) does not function properly. The peripheral vision or side vision remains unaffected.
Macular degeneration is of two types:
Dry macular degeneration – affects eyes gradually. This type cannot be treated, one needs to learn to get used to it and deal with it.
Wet macular degeneration – this is more serious type and develops quickly. Prompt treatment is important.
This condition is most often seen in people over 50years and is called age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and generally causes visual impairment. About 2% of people over 50years are affected by the condition, the percentage rises to 80% for people over 65years. It is seen to affect women more than men.
In young people, macular degeneration is caused due to genetic factors, however, these are rare cases.
Symptoms
There are no pain symptoms hence it is mostly too late before people realize they suffer from the condition. Main symptom is blurring of central vision, without affecting peripheral vision. Wearing glasses may be of little help to get rid of blurring.
Dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – the symptoms take 5 – 10years to noticeably impact your routine activities. In case only one eye is affected, the other eye takes over and symptoms might go unnoticed for a longer time. The symptoms include
- Hazy and blurred vission
- Problem in face recognition
- Colors seem duller than normal
- Difficulty in reading and writing text
- Inability to read in less bright light.
Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) – in this case, symptoms appear much faster. In addition to blurring of central vision, typical symptoms are
Visual distortions – straight lines appear wavy or crooked, condition is referred to as metamorphopsia.
Blind spot – this shows up in the center of the visual area and becomes larger, if left untreated. This is called central scotoma.
These symptoms / conditions appear suddenly and need immediate medical attention to avoid permanent vision impairment.
Complications
Emotional setback – this is mainly because the condition affects daily routine activities like reading and writing and it might prove emotionally disturbing to accept this fact.
Driving ability gets largely impacted as central vision is important for driving.
Charles Bonnet syndrome – about 12% of cases suffering from macular degeneration end up having hallucinations or image creation by their brain by using what is stored in the memory. These are a result of lack of visual stimulation caused by the condition, so that the person starts to imagine unusual shapes, patterns, faces, animals or may be an entire episode which may last long hours. The images can be pleasant or scary at times, and can either be colored or in black and white. People suffering from hallucinations can be apprehensive about their mental state and might not inform their doctor about it. But if discussed with the doctor, one can learn to tackle these problems.
