Optic Neuritis: Causes and Symptoms, Treatment of Optic Neuritis

What is this disease?

Optic neuritis is an abnormality that affects the optic nerve, thus ending up affecting your eye's retina and causing it many annoying and disturbing side effects.. At first, optic neuritis could be confused with other similar eye problems such as near sightedness and far sightedness, but in the end optic neuritis has more symptoms than the previous two diseases. Even though this article will brush the surface of the said problem, it is recommended that you go see a doctor if you are experience any visual abnormalities or if you are experience pain in the area of your eyes.

What kind of symptoms can I expect

Optic neuritis has many different symptoms and you will undoubtedly know if you are affected by one (or many) of them as they are quite present in your everyday life.

Blurred vision

A Blurred vision is quite simple to notice even if you are not the one affected by it (for example, if you suspect that your kid does not have a perfect vision.) If you have trouble seeing the definite shape of an object, or if you confuse the distance of where objects are at, you may have a blurred vision. If you are still skeptical, you may want to ask friends or fellow workers about the level of detail that they can see on certain objects. Finally, you should ask an optometrist to test your eyes, and you will definitely have an answer.

Loss of colors

The loss of colors is one of the symptoms that may set optic neuritis apart; this problem is not present in other well known eye diseases, such as near sightedness and far sightedness. As well, you should know that suffering from loss of colors does not mean that you are going to see in black and white, but rather that you will see colors with less intensity.

Pain in the area of the eye

It is quite rare that someone will be hurt behind the retina due to your everyday life; if you feel a tension or ongoing pain in the back of your eye, this should raise an alarm, contact your doctor immediately even if you think that it may be something less important.

Levels of blindness

It is possible that you may also have partial blindness; in that case, I strongly suggest that you go to a doctor (actually, it would be quite surprising to know that someone with partial blindness would not want to go see a doctor.)

Can it get worse?

This title may be a tad too alarming, but it should be mentioned that if this is not treated, it could indeed get worse. Optic Neuritis can hit people as young as 15 and as old as 50 (obviously, this does not create a fail proof boundary, where being under or over the age limit grants you immunity.) However, this age range dictates that half of the affected people may end up developing multiple sclerosis.

Can it be cured?

There is no absolute way to prevent optic neuritis from ever coming back, and there are still no ways to fully prevent a multiple sclerosis from occurring; however there are some alternatives that can either delay, or hopefully prevent optic neuritis. Some kinds of steroids may help you on this matter (known as Cortico-Steroids,) but this article will not go further in the subject, as it is delicate matter. Contact your personal doctor and mention to him about the possibilities of using steroids; from there on, he will be able to help you and point at the right medicine.

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