| Finding effective age related macular degeneration | | | | variety of techniques to diagnose it. Special charts |
| treatment is an ongoing process. The disease, also | | | | and grids are sometimes used as well as retina |
| called ARMD, comes in two different forms: dry | | | | imaging procedures. The doctor may use a |
| (which is the less severe form and more | | | | fluorescein angiogram test. This procedure |
| common) and wet (which is much more damaging | | | | involves a injecting a dye into the patient's |
| to the eye and can cause severe vision loss). | | | | bloodstream after which the doctor takes photos |
| Both types are incurable but there are some | | | | at the back of the eye. The doctor may also use |
| treatment options that are being tried to stop the | | | | optical coherence tomography to see the extent |
| progress of the disease and/or improve and | | | | of the macular degeneration below the retina. |
| remaining vision. | | | | If wet ARMD is diagnosed, treatment usually |
| When a person has dry ARMD, his or her loss of | | | | begins immediately. Some doctors start out by |
| vision is gradual and not extremely severe. There | | | | injecting drugs (like Lucentis) into the back of the |
| is no treatment available at this time other than | | | | eye. Studies indicate that certain drugs work to |
| wearing magnified glasses and always using bright | | | | stop additional abnormal blood vessel growth. |
| lights when doing detail work or reading. Some | | | | These drugs also tend to dry up and seal blood |
| eye specialists recommend that their patients | | | | vessels that have already started to leak. For |
| take vitamin supplements such as C, E, | | | | these drugs to be most effective, however, the |
| beta-carotene, zinc and copper to help stop the | | | | disease needs to be diagnosed early before |
| progression of the disease. | | | | central vision has been permanently damaged. |
| For the more severe wet ARMD, doctors use a | | | | |