Glaucoma is a serious eye condition that can lead to blindness. Fortunately, there are treatments to help preserve your eye health. But in addition to eye care, are there special glasses that could help you live with glaucoma?
Unfortunately, we don’t know of any pair of glasses that can protect your eye health from further glaucoma damage. However, there are glasses that could help you deal with the effects of glaucoma on your daily life. You probably already know glaucoma can cause light sensitivity, and this is one area where special glasses can help. We’ll tell you about them in this article. But first, let’s talk about glaucoma for just a minute.
What Is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a buildup of pressure inside the eye that damages the optic nerve. The impact is so gradual that many people don’t notice their worsening eyesight until there is significant vision loss. This is just one of the reasons why regular, proactive eye care is so important.
But if you’re reading this, you probably know that light sensitivity (also called photophobia) is no joke either.
If you have glaucoma, then bright light, computer screens, or the glare of nighttime driving can be really uncomfortable. This may lead you to look for special glasses for glaucoma to help with light sensitivity and other symptoms.
What Are Glaucoma Glasses?
If you have glaucoma, your eye doctor can help you find a vision prescription that maximizes your sight, along with glaucoma medications or even surgery to slow disease progression. But you might also have interest in other types of glasses to help you function better with the disease.
For glaucoma patients, it can be difficult for your vision to adapt to different environments. For example, if you have glaucoma, changes in brightness could reduce your sensitivity to contrast. This may lessen your ability to focus, and make it difficult to adjust from a bright environment to a dark one, or vice-versa.
This is just one reason why you might wonder about special glasses for glaucoma. Let’s take a look at some of your choices.
Light Sensitivity Glasses for Glaucoma
If you’re looking for special glasses for glaucoma light sensitivity, try photophobia glasses by Axon Optics, powered by Avulux® lenses for light sensitivity. While we don’t claim our glasses reduce the pressure in your eyes or slow the progression of glaucoma, our precise lens tint has been shown to decrease light sensitivity in 84% of users, which might help you function better.
Axon Optics users with glaucoma have reported how helpful our glasses have been.
“I’d like to say thank you to Axon Optics for the new wraps that I just received. I put them on and got immediate relief from my light sensitivity. I’m a glaucoma patient as well. I’ve been wearing Theraspecs® for a while, and the difference between the two is night and day. Thank you once more for this wonderful product.”
– Jerry
“Since I know that bright lights and glare while driving are already a migraine trigger for me, I knew I needed to figure out a way to take care of my eyes and minimize these side effects of the glaucoma surgeries, which led me to look into Axon Optics’ glasses as a potential solution for what I was experiencing.
I’m so glad I did! These
– Jaimeewith anti-glare, anti-smudge coating have made a drastic difference in how glaucoma affects my life. I can drive at night again without painful glare from headlights and street lights. I can work at the computer without the white, horizontal line of light (ghosting) caused by the extra hole in my iris. I can watch television in a dark room without squinting. I have gone from using my dry-eye drops 3-4 times per day to maybe once per week. Glaucoma definitely looks better through rosy glasses! Thanks, Axon Optics!”
Axon Optics with Avulux lenses are available in your vision prescription and also in readers. So as you work with your eye care doctor to find a prescription that helps you see your best even with glaucoma, you can also fight the light sensitivity that adds more discomfort to your glaucoma symptoms.
Sunglasses
A good pair of sunglasses is essential for anyone, especially those who are extra sensitive to sunlight. If you have glaucoma and associated light sensitivity, you might even be tempted to wear sunglasses indoors.
Unfortunately, doing this can actually dark-adapt your eyes and make your light sensitivity worse over time. So while you might feel some relief when you put them on, wearing sunglasses indoors is a bad idea.
Blue Light Glasses
Blue light glasses may be helpful for reducing blue light exposure, but can they help with your glaucoma?
Blue light glasses, sometimes called blue blockers, are said to filter blue light to help reduce the potentially harmful effects of digital screens like computers, TVs, and smartphones.
While some people claim they help, there isn’t a lot of evidence to support that claim. In fact, the American Academy of Ophthalmology doesn’t endorse blue light glasses. Instead, they recommend taking frequent breaks to ease digital eye strain. You can read more about blue light glasses here.
If you’re looking for special glasses for glaucoma, trying to filter blue light with these glasses won’t do any harm. Research is ongoing, but at this point, evidence to suggest blue light glasses provide actual benefit is lukewarm at best.
Glaucoma Glasses for Eye Pressure
The pressure buildup inside the eye is what causes glaucoma to damage the optic nerve. A startup company still in clinical stages, called Bionode, is said to be developing special glaucoma glasses to potentially reduce eye pressure.
These glasses would be worn with specific contact lenses which have a gold coil around the edge. Together, the contacts and glasses are said to create an electromagnetic field that delivers a tiny energy current to regulate how fluid drains from the eye.
This is fascinating stuff. However, we don’t know how long these glasses might take to develop or if they’ll actually help with glaucoma light sensitivity. As of this writing, it doesn’t look like the glasses or accompanying contacts will be available anytime soon.
What You Can Do Now
For now, you can ease your symptoms of light sensitivity with the glasses made specifically for light sensitivity — whether it’s related to glaucoma or not. Give Axon Optics powered by Avulux a try. They come with a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose and serious relief to gain.
Resources
Katz B, Digre K. Diagnosis, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Photophobia. Survey of Ophthalmology. 2016.02.001 www.surveyophthalmol.com/article/S0039-6257(15)30007-2/abstract
Bierings RAJM, Kuiper M, van Berkel CM, Overkempe T, Jansonius NM. Foveal light and dark adaptation in patients with glaucoma and healthy subjects: A case-control study. PLoS One. 2018;13(3):e0193663. Published 2018 Mar 6. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0193663.
