AMD causes problems for what is called “central vision”, or your “straight-ahead” vision. This is because the photoreceptors in your macula, located in the central area of your retina, are not functioning well or have died. The picture at the right gives you an idea of how a face would look to a person with moderate to advanced AMD. The picture below shows how printed text would look.

AMD never causes total blindness. Persons with AMD, even its most severe form, have normal “peripheral” or side vision. If you know of someone who has AMD and has lost peripheral vision, this is not because of AMD but because of another eye condition.

One of the early signs of AMD is that detail vision is not as good as it used to be, even after the ophthalmologist has corrected the person’s vision with new glasses or contact lenses. Detail vision is used for many visual activities. One of the very common things we do that depends on detail vision is reading. Surveys have shown that the most common visual complaint of AMD patients is difficulty in reading.

Another problem is a loss of contrast sensitivity. This means that the world looks more “washed out” and the borders between objects are indistinct. A heightened sensitivity to glare often goes hand in hand with contrast sensitivity problems. In addition, colors can appear less bold and not the way most other people see them. The ability to tell the difference between certain colors may also be hampered.

Recent research has shown that one of the earliest signs of AMD is difficulty seeing at night, such as during driving, or when the illumination is rather low, as in a dimly lit restaurant. People with AMD also need a much longer time to adapt to darkness, such as entering a darkened movie theater or when driving through a tunnel. These eyesight problems at night and under low illumination sometimes occur well before the AMD patient will notice any loss of detail vision.

Persons with AMD often notice that straight lines appear distorted or wavy especially in the center of vision. The medical term for this is “metamorphopsia”. Your ophthalmologist may ask you to use an Amsler Grid as a convenient screening test at home to determine if you are experiencing these distortions. An Amsler Grid, pictured below, is a simple pattern of vertical and horizontal lines, with a fixation point in the center to focus on. Persons with AMD will sometimes see a waviness or a disruption in the pattern, as illustrated to the right of the normal Amsler Grid.

You can have AMD and some or all of these symptoms, and just because you have these symptoms, this does not mean you have AMD. Remember that AMD can only be properly diagnosed through a comprehensive eye examination and in some cases, more specialized tests.