Whether you need a routine or comprehensive eye evaluation, scheduling regular eye exams in Orchard Park with Southtowns Eye Center is one of the simplest ways to protect your vision.
Glaucoma Evaluations & Treatments
Whether you need a routine or comprehensive eye evaluation, scheduling regular eye exams in Orchard Park with Southtowns Eye Center is one of the simplest ways to protect your vision.
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is a complex disorder where the optic nerve (the cable carrying all the information from our eye back to our brain) is damaged over time, usually from having elevated eye pressure. Damage to the optic nerve results in vision loss, usually peripheral vision loss at first, but over time without treatment glaucoma can lead to blindness.
Who is at Risk of Developing Glaucoma?
What is Checked during a Glasses Exam?
Risk factors for glaucoma include:
- Increasing age
- Being male
- Having a family history
- African Americans
- Being near-sighted
- Having low blood pressure (hypotension)
- Eye conditions such as pigmentary dispersion syndrome and pseudoexfoliation
- Medical conditions such as Obstructive Sleep Apnea
- Medication use, especially steroids
Our Core Values
- Compassion: We treat patients, colleagues, and our community with empathy and respect.
- Integrity: We uphold the highest standards of ethics and professionalism, earning the trust placed in us.
- Teamwork: We value every team member’s contributions and work together to deliver the best possible care.
- Expertise: We are committed to excellence, continuously delivering high-quality outcomes through dedication and skill.
How is Glaucoma Diagnosed?
At Southtowns Eye Center we have all the necessary technology and skill to accurately establish your risk of developing glaucoma or the risk of your glaucoma worsening. Your initial consult will consist of measuring your eye pressure and corneal thickness, assessing for optic nerve damage with a dilated eye exam and optic nerve measurements, checking for current areas of vision loss with a visual field test, and assessing the drainage system of the eye using gonioscopy. Combining all of these factors provides our doctors with the necessary information to create a personalized care plan for each patient to lower their risk of having irreversible vision loss from glaucoma.
How is Glaucoma Managed?
Every patient will have a personalized plan to help control their glaucoma. This plan will include regular monitoring with exams at least twice a year to check the eye pressure as well as testing including visual field monitoring, and optic nerve pictures and measurements.
The mainstay of treatment is using eye drops every day. Some patients may require one eye drop used daily and some patients may use multiple drops daily. Other methods of treatment include a laser procedure (Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty or SLT) done in our office to help reduce the eye pressure and some patients require glaucoma surgery to maintain adequate control of their eye pressure. We also offer combined glaucoma surgery at the time of cataract surgery to help reduce the number of drops patients take.
At Southtowns Eye Center we have the capability to treat and prevent other less common types of glaucoma such as pseudoexfoliative glaucoma, pigmentary dispersion glaucoma and acute angle closure glaucoma with our in-office laser machine.
What Ages do We Examine?
We are happy to examine patients 5 years of age and older.
Meet Our Doctors
Our eye doctors are equipped to handle all of your eye concerns. Meet our doctors who provide routine and comprehensive eye exams to Orchard Park, Hamburg, and the surrounding Western NY Area.
Our Location
Located in a stand alone building directly next door to Denny's Restaurant. The Southtowns Eye Center offers free parking and is wheelchair accessible.
Our Mission
Our mission is to preserve and improve the gift of vision by providing a professional and caring environment where each patient will receive the best possible eye care using the latest techniques, technology and equipment. By providing our patients premium care, we can improve our patients’ life experiences and help them see the beauty in all things.