You need to visit an ophthalmologist to examine your retina but there are some symptoms that can help you identify the possibility of macular degeneration. Common symptoms of age-related macular degeneration include straight lines appearing and vanishing on your vision, changing color perceptions, and blurry eyes. Most often, people older than 45 years of age are more vulnerable to macular degeneration; therefore, the ophthalmologists suggest to visit them at least twice a year after this age.
Here are the treatment options of macular degeneration in Boca Raton.
Treatments of Macular Degeneration
Following are the FDA approved treatment options for the disease.
Implantable Telescope
The last stage macular degeneration can be treated by implanting a pea-sized telescope on retina to clear the image. Sometimes, eye glasses are also required to improve the performance of implantable telescope. It is an expensive treatment and required to treat last stage MD only.
Injections
Different types of treatments are used to treat wet macular degeneration.
* Lucentis, a type of collateral cancer treatment, is injected to inhibit the growth of proteins which stimulate the growth of blood vessels in body. It is a less expensive used for middle stage MD and ensures 60% to 95% successful results.
* Macugen is also used to attack VEGF or blood vessel growth stimulating proteins. After almost six weeks of the treatment, the rate of vision loss is slowed down to around 1%. Side effects of Macugen are next to none.
* Eylea is also injected in the retina to inhibit the acting VEGFs. Eylea is preferred by majority of the ophthalmologists as it is required to inject after every eight weeks only as compared to other medicines which are injected every four weeks. It is an effective alternative of the other two medicines along with low rate of side effects.
Photodynamic Therapy
A common treatment of macular degeneration in Boca Raton, photodynamic therapy is the treatment of injecting specific medicines in the arms. The fluids travel to retina and act to shine the low-energy and dimming laser beams to improve vision. It reduces the process of vision loss up to 25%. Sometimes the effect of Lucentis and Macugen is boosted by combining the course with photodynamic therapy. Visudyne was the first drug approved by FDA and used for photodynamic therapy. Since then, it is the most used drug for this treatment.
Laser Treatment
Laser treatment is also used for wet type macular degeneration. The treatment had been approved by FDA but it is commonly not used to treat the disease as its side effects include formation of retinal scars which interrupt with the vision and degenerate retinal cells. Scar tissues can be treated later on but ophthalmologists prefer other treatments over laser photocoagulation treatment.
The most common and popularly used treatment among all these is photodynamic therapy with Visudyne. But all treatments are available for macular degeneration in Boca Raton. Dry macular degeneration cannot be completely treated but regular screening and monitoring ophthalmologist’s care can slow down the process of vision loss.
