What are the symptoms of glaucoma?
• Answer: At first, open-angle glaucoma has no symptoms. It causes no pain. Vision stays normal. As glaucoma remains untreated, people may miss objects to the side and out of the corner of their eye. Without treatment, people with glaucoma will slowly lose their peripheral (side) vision. They seem to be looking through a tunnel. Over time, straight-ahead vision may decrease until no vision remains.
Glaucoma has been called “a silent thief” as it tends to develop without warning and usually does not cause any pain or significant vision loss until the disease has progressed. In certain other types of glaucoma, symptoms are present before significant damage to the optic nerve has occurred — these symptoms include red, painful eyes, hazy or blurry vision, loss of peripheral vision, and halos around lights.
