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Your optic nerve is the nerve that connects the back of your eye to your brain so that you can see. In glaucoma, the pressure inside of your eye from internal fluid is too high, which pushes on the optic nerve and damages it over time. If left untreated, glaucoma can cause irreversible vision loss due to optic nerve damage.
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People with glaucoma typically do not notice any symptoms until the advanced stages of the disease. In advanced glaucoma, patients experience peripheral vision loss that gradually progresses to the center of their vision.
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The first line of treatment for patients with glaucoma is to put in an eye drop daily to lower your eye pressure. Glaucoma is carefully monitored yearly with scans of the optic nerve and visual field tests to monitor optic nerve damage and potential vision loss.