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It may help for you to get care from a low vision rehabilitation specialist, an occupational therapist, your eye doctor and others trained in low vision rehabilitation. They can help you find ways to adapt to your changing vision. One of these tests is called the Amsler grid test, and patients can easily perform it at home in between visits to the ophthalmologist. Age-related macular degeneration doesn't affect your side vision and usually doesn't cause total blindness. Central vision is necessary for reading, driving and recognizing people's faces.
What to expect from your doctor
American Academy of Ophthalmology has provided a helpful Amsler grid for your convenience. You can quickly test your vision at home with the Amsler grid. Some of the lines may appear wavy or inconsistent with the other lines. Do the test with good lighting you would normally read under.
Marc Amsler, a Swiss ophthalmologist, created the grid. It’s a diagnostic technique that helps ophthalmologists spot vision problems caused by changes in the retina, especially the macula, such as AMD. For more than 25 years, Tampa Bay retina specialist, Dana M. Deupree, MD, FACS, has successfully treated vitreo-retinal eye diseases. He is a board-certified ophthalmologist, vitreo-retina specialist and surgeon.
How do they diagnose macular degeneration?
The familiar appearance resembles a square of graph paper. Traditionally, Amsler grids were made up of white lines on a black background. The color schematics used today are often the reverse, presenting as black lines on a white background. Black and red or blue and yellow color schematics have also been instituted. Better lighting helps with reading and other daily activities, and it also may reduce the risk of falling.
After a diagnosis of a retinal condition, the Amsler grid may be used to identify early indicators of the disease and track changes in vision. An early diagnosis means early treatment, so it may help to limit or at least slow the vision loss you experience. People with macular degeneration may experience psychological distress and lose some independence due to their vision. People can seek support from their relatives, family, and medical professionals to ensure their vision does not impact other aspects of their lives. If a person cannot see the corners, doctors will also test for other eye diseases such as glaucoma and retinitis pigmentosa.
How To Test For Macular Degeneration At Home
Make an appointment for a complete eye exam with a doctor who specializes in eye care — an optometrist or an ophthalmologist. For selected people with advanced dry macular degeneration in both eyes, an option to improve vision may be surgery to implant a telescopic lens in one eye. The telescopic lens, which looks like a tiny plastic tube, is equipped with lenses that magnify your field of vision. The telescopic lens implant may improve both distance and close-up vision, but it has a very narrow field of view.
Such devices include hand-held magnifying lenses or magnifying lenses you wear like glasses. This noninvasive imaging test displays detailed cross-sectional images of the retina. It identifies areas where the retina may be thinning, thickening or swelling. These can be caused by fluid buildup from leaking blood vessels in and under your retina. The earlier detection facilitated by ForeseeHome leads to earlier treatment of the disease and provides you with the best chance of protecting good, functional vision.
The images will show if you have retinal or blood vessel changes, which are a sign of wet macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is an age-related, degenerative condition that results in gradual vision loss. This eye disease is often discovered when an individual goes to his or her annual eye exam during a dilated eye exam that views the retinas.
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Don’t be in the 25% of people that get tested after it's too late. Most people with macular degeneration will keep their vision for most of their lives. After many years, if vision loss does occur, it is usually central vision, while side and peripheral vision are preserved. An ophthalmoscope is an instrument used to examine the eye's interior structures, especially the retina.
The Amsler Grid looks like graph paper, with dark lines forming a square grid. If the distortion is new or has worsened, arrange to see your eye doctor at once. Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. OCT can identify regions of the retina that are thinning, which indicates geographic atrophy.
Doctors encourage people to use the Amsler grid at least once a week to check their eyesight. People can obtain a grid from their eye doctor or can save or download the one we provide in this article. If it’s time to check your eyes, here’s some of the tests you may take to detect age-related macular degeneration . Your doctor or other health care provider may recommend you get services more often than Medicare covers.
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