Symptoms of Macular Degeneration
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD, or just macular degeneration) is a common eye disease associated with aging. It blurs the sharp, central vision you need for "straight-ahead" activities, such as reading, sewing, and driving. In some people, macular degeneration advances so slowly that it has little effect on their vision as they age. But in others, the disease progresses faster and may lead to a loss of vision in one or both eyes. Symptoms of Macular Degeneration are listed as follows:

1. Straight lines look irregular or bent, called metamorphopsia, and objects appear a different color or shape in each of the eyes.

2. Objects appearing smaller in one eye than the other, called micropsia, may also indicate a swelling and bulging of the macula, leading to a greater distance between the individual photoreceptors, which in turn causes the brain to interpret the object as smaller than seen by the good eye.

3. Blurred or decreased central close-up and distance vision, which is often delayed because patients subconsciously ignore the eye with worst vision prior to development of the condition in the previously good eye.

4. Blind spots, or scotomas, are a direct result of lost macular function.