QUESTION: “Will I go blind?” is one of the most common and emotionally-charged questions asked when a person gets a diagnosis of any macular disease such as Age-Related Macular Degeneration, Stargardt’s Disease, Myopic Macular Degeneration (and others) that can damage central vision.
The short answer is no.
Having AMD or any form of macular degeneration affects one’s central vision, but peripheral vision is spared. More details below.
Central Vision Loss is NOT Inevitable!
You can find what the risk of having a vision impairment or vision loss: I have AMD. What’s my chance of having vision loss?
With early or intermediate dry AMD, the chance of progressing to a stage where vision loss can occur (wet or geographic atrophy) is 10-15%!
That means that MOST PEOPLE do NOT have vision loss.
Blind? Vision Impairment?
Many people use the word ‘blind’ to mean any vision loss, but we try NOT to use that word for macular degeneration. Instead, some people will have a visual impairment or become legally blind, but not everyone.
Terminology
This is just a partial list of terms.
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- Total blindness refers to an inability to see anything with either eye.
- Legal blindness is a level of vision loss that has been legally defined to determine eligibility for benefits. The clinical diagnosis refers to a central visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye with the best possible correction, and/or a visual field of 20 degrees or less. Often, people who are diagnosed with legal blindness still have some usable vision.
- Vision loss refers to individuals who have trouble seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses, as well as to individuals who are blind or unable to see at all.
- Visual impairment is often defined clinically as a visual acuity of 20/70 or worse in the better eye with best correction, or a total field loss of 140 degrees. Additional factors influencing visual impairment might be contrast sensitivity, light sensitivity, glare sensitivity, and light/dark adaptation.
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