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Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
Dry macular degeneration usually develops gradually and painlessly. You may notice these vision changes:
- The need for increasingly bright light when reading or doing close work
- Increasing difficulty adapting to low light levels, such as when entering a dimly lit restaurant
- Increasing blurriness of printed words
- A decrease in the intensity or brightness of colors
- Difficulty recognizing faces
- Gradual increase in the haziness of your overall vision
- Blurred or blind spot in the center of your visual field combined with a profound drop in the sharpness (acuity) of your central vision
Your vision may falter in one eye while the other eye remains fine for years. You may not notice any or much change because your good eye compensates for the weak one. Your vision and lifestyle begin to be dramatically affected when this condition develops in both eyes.
Hallucinations
Additionally, some people with macular degeneration may experience visual hallucinations as their vision loss becomes more severe. These hallucinations may include unusual patterns, geometric figures, animals or even faces. You might be afraid to discuss these symptoms with your doctors or friends and family for fear you'll be considered crazy. However, such hallucinations aren't a sign of mental illness. In fact, they're so common that there's a name for this phenomenon — Charles Bonnet syndrome.
When to see a doctor
See your eye doctor — particularly after age 50 — if:
- You notice changes in your central vision
- Your ability to see colors and fine detail becomes impaired
One way to monitor your eyes to determine if you may need to visit your eye doctor is to check your vision regularly using an Amsler grid. This simple test may help you detect changes in your sight that you otherwise may not notice.
Here's how to perform the test:
- Hold the grid 14 inches (about 36 centimeters) in front of you in good light. Use your corrective glasses or reading glasses if you normally wear them.
- Cover one eye.
- Look directly at the center dot with your uncovered eye.
- While looking at this dot, determine whether all of the lines of the grid appear straight, uninterrupted and have the same contrast.
- Repeat the above steps with your other eye.
- If any part of the grid is missing or looks wavy, blurred or dark, contact your eye doctor immediately.
Amsler grid (PDF file requiring Adobe Reader)
