Damage due to glaucoma is preventable, not curable. It is therefore necessary that the disease should be detected and treated at its earliest stage to prevent blindness.

Glaucoma is usually asymptomatic or is associated with very mild symptoms which the patient often tends to ignore. Some of the early symptoms include:

• Frequent change of reading glasses.
• Mild eye ache or headache towards the evening after a day’s work.
• Seeing rainbow colored haloes of light around a bulb associated with slight decrease in vision.
• Inability to adjust one’s vision on entering a dark room. ” difficulty in focusing on close work.

In advanced cases, there is a loss of side vision, while the central vision remains good. The patient becomes more prone to accidents as he/she is unable to see vehicles coming from the sides.

It is to be remembered, that cataract (“Safed Motia“) also starts developing at the same age as glaucoma. Many people may think that they are losing vision due to cataract whereas it may actually be due to glaucoma, which is a much more dangerous disease.

It is therefore advisable to undergo a routine examination around the age of 40 years to screen for glaucoma.