Glaucoma testing at your address
Pressure, the optic nerve and visual fields, assessed at home, at work or in aged care.
Pressure, the optic nerve and visual fields, assessed at home, at work or in aged care.
Glaucoma is damage to the optic nerve, the nerve that carries what you see from your eye to your brain. It is usually caused by pressure inside the eye being higher than that nerve can tolerate.
Damage starts at the edges of your vision and works inwards, and it is permanent.
Sudden severe eye pain with a red eye, blurred vision, haloes around lights, headache or nausea can be acute angle closure glaucoma. That is a medical emergency. Go to a hospital emergency department.3
Glaucoma has no symptoms in its early stages. There is no pain, no blurring and no redness.
Vision goes from the outer edges first, and your other eye fills the gap, so most people notice nothing until a large amount of nerve is already gone.
In the Australian National Eye Health Survey, around half of the participants found to have glaucoma had no known history of it.1
The most common type. The drainage angle stays open but fluid leaves too slowly, and pressure builds over years.
The drainage angle narrows or shuts. It can happen suddenly, with severe pain, a red eye, blurred vision, haloes and often nausea. That is a medical emergency.
The optic nerve is damaged even though eye pressure measures within the normal range.
Pressure rises because of another condition, an eye injury, or long term steroid use.
Tell your optometrist if anyone in your family has glaucoma. It changes how often you should be examined, and how much weight a borderline finding carries.
Glaucoma is not diagnosed on eye pressure alone. Pressure is a risk factor. The optic nerve and the visual field are what confirm it.
Measured by tonometry. We use two methods, including one that needs no drops.
Examined through a slit lamp biomicroscope with a diagnostic lens. The shape and colour of the nerve head is where early damage shows.
An automated visual field tester maps where sensitivity has been lost. Field loss is what confirms the diagnosis.
Images of the nerve kept on file, so each visit is compared against the last.
Assessed at the slit lamp, to tell open angle glaucoma from angle closure.
Family history, ancestry, steroid use, past eye injury, short sightedness and diabetes.
Your images and field results go on file as a baseline, so the next visit has something to compare against.
A borderline nerve, raised pressure, or family history without field loss. Monitored at a shorter interval.
Treatment lowers the pressure, usually with drops. Optometrists with a scheduled medicines endorsement prescribe and monitor, often alongside an ophthalmologist.
Referred to ophthalmology for laser or surgery, with the referral written on the day.3
Glaucoma is recorded in 13.6% of Australians entering residential aged care.2
Eye pressure, the optic nerve and photography can all be assessed at the bedside. Visual fields need the resident to press a button in response to a light, so where that is not possible it is recorded as not assessed.
Tell us before a clinic day if a resident is already on glaucoma drops.
Testing happens in the clinic vehicle at your address, at your workplace, or at your village or aged care home. The instruments are installed and calibrated, and the examination is the same one you would have in a shopfront practice.
Glaucoma monitoring continues for life, at an appointment every 6 or 12 months.
Ali Selman, Bachelor of Vision Science, Master of Optometry. AHPRA registered optometrist. Last reviewed 23 August 2026.
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