Symptoms of macular degeneration

AMD develops slowly in its dry form and can change quickly in its wet form. Watch for:

Blurry central vision: words on a page smear or need brighter light to read
Distortion: straight lines such as door frames or tile edges look wavy or bent
A dark or empty spot in the center of your vision
Colors appearing faded or less vivid than before

A grassy field with the center of the view blurred and darkened, simulating central vision loss from macular degeneration — What macular degeneration can look like: the center of your vision blurs and darkens while your peripheral vision stays clear.

Causes & risk factors

AMD comes in two forms. In dry AMD, the most common form, deposits called drusen build up under the macula and the tissue slowly thins. In wet AMD, abnormal blood vessels grow beneath or within the retina and leak fluid or blood, which can damage central vision.

Your risk is higher with age, a family history of AMD, smoking, and cardiovascular disease. Smoking is the largest controllable risk factor.

Retina photograph showing early macular degeneration with scattered small drusen — Retina photographs from our clinic showing how AMD progresses: drusen deposits grow and cluster around the macula over time.

Retina photograph showing intermediate macular degeneration with clustered drusen near the macula — Retina photographs from our clinic showing how AMD progresses: drusen deposits grow and cluster around the macula over time.

How we diagnose dry and wet AMD

Diagnosis starts with a dilated retinal exam and OCT imaging, a painless scan that shows each layer of the macula in cross-section. The OCT and exam can help us determine whether you have dry AMD, wet AMD, or both!

Amsler grid examples: normal, missing area or blind spot, and distortion with wavy lines — The Amsler grid: what normal looks like, and the blind spots or wavy lines that mean you should call us.

How is macular degeneration treated?

Treatment depends on the form of AMD:

Early Dry AMD and Intermediate Dry AMD

Monitoring, AREDS2 vitamin supplementation for appropriate patients, leafy green vegetables, home Amsler grid checks, and lifestyle changes, especially stopping smoking. Routine exams can help determine the stage of AMD and any treatment that may help preserve your vision.

Advanced Dry AMD: complement inhibitor injections

For advanced dry AMD with geographic atrophy, complement inhibitor injections can slow the worsening of geographic atrophy and help preserve remaining central vision. Injections of Syfovre or Izervay may be performed every 4-8 weeks.

Wet AMD: anti-VEGF injections

For wet AMD, anti-VEGF injections reduce leakage from the abnormal blood vessels and cause the vessels to regress, helping preserve central vision. Injections of Avastin, Lucentis, Eylea, or Vabysmo may be performed every 4-16 weeks, depending on your eye's response to the treatment.

What to expect

Retina photograph showing a choroidal neovascular membrane from wet macular degeneration — Wet AMD: a choroidal neovascular membrane, the abnormal blood vessel growth that anti-VEGF injections are designed to stop.

Wet AMD was once untreatable. Today, with consistent injection therapy, most patients maintain their vision and many improve.

The pattern is consistent: the earlier changes are caught, the more vision is preserved. That is why monitoring matters as much as treatment.

Common questions

Will I go blind from macular degeneration?

AMD, whether dry or wet, does not typically cause total blindness. While the central vision may become blurry, the peripheral vision typically remains unaffected. With modern treatment, most patients are able to maintain functional vision, though even with treatment, the vision may worsen. The key is catching changes early and being consistent with treatment.

Are the injections painful? What can I expect?

This is the most common fear, and the honest answer is that they are much easier than patients expect. We will numb the eye with numbing eye drops and a q-tip directly over the treatment location, and occasionally with an additional injection of numbing medicine. We will then place an eyelid holder so you do not need to worry about keeping your eyelids open, followed by a few drops of medicine to clean the surface of the eye. The injection is performed in the white part of the eye, and you most likely will not feel the injection at all, or may feel some light pressure. The injection itself takes seconds.

For how long will I need injections?

Our goal is to treat as little as possible but frequently enough to provide the best vision possible. We typically start with treating every four weeks, and as we achieve stabilization, we prolong the intervals between treatment. Over time, many patients begin to notice when they need an injection, and while no one wants an injection, most are willing and even eager to have the treatment because of the improvements they notice in their vision. Some patients require treatment every 4-6 weeks, some every 6-8 weeks, and others every 3-4 months.

Can dry AMD turn into wet AMD?

Yes, dry AMD can become wet AMD, and early dry AMD can also become advanced AMD over time. We often see patients with dry AMD every 6 months to monitor for signs of transitioning to wet AMD or for signs that the early dry AMD is becoming intermediate or advanced AMD. Roughly 1 in 10 patients with dry AMD develops the wet form, and the 5-year risk of early or intermediate dry AMD progressing to advanced AMD ranges from about 0.5% to 50%, depending on the number of risk factors such as large drusen and pigment changes.

Sources & review

This page is educational and is not a substitute for an examination. Content follows guidance from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Retina Specialists.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)