Experiencing even a small amount of vision loss can be scary, which may lead you to worry that you might eventually go blind. And while age-related macular degeneration (AMD) does impair your central vision — what you see when you look straight ahead — most people with this condition don’t become blind.

Still, it’s normal to be concerned about your ability to see as you navigate life with AMD. “I have one blind spot, and I’m just terrified,” one myAMDteam member wrote.

Read on to discover how common blindness is among people with AMD, along with strategies that may help you delay vision loss.

How Vision Is Affected by Wet and Dry AMD

Vision loss among people with age-related macular degeneration — and how quickly it happens — may depend on the AMD type.

There are two types of AMD. When you get an AMD diagnosis, your eye doctor will tell you whether you have dry or wet AMD.

Dry AMD is the most common form, affecting about 90 percent of people with macular degeneration. With this eye disease, you’ll experience thinning of the macula as you get older. The macula is the central part of your retina. It provides the focused vision you use to see details. In dry macular degeneration, small deposits of protein called drusen develop beneath the retina, causing vision loss and blind spots. If dry AMD progresses to advanced stages, it may develop into a condition called geographic atrophy.

Wet AMD is a more advanced form of macular degeneration. About 10 percent of people with dry AMD eventually develop wet AMD. Wet AMD is caused by abnormal blood vessels that can lead to fluid leaking behind the macula.

Although both dry and wet AMD can cause vision loss, wet AMD generally progresses more quickly.

How Common Is Blindness in AMD?

Most people with AMD won’t go completely blind, but it can cause blind spots in your central vision, which can interfere with reading and driving. But you’re likely to retain your peripheral vision, which lets you see what’s on either side of you.

People who have geographic atrophy or wet AMD are more likely to experience severe vision loss from AMD. In fact, about 90 percent of legal blindness among those with AMD occurs in people who have wet AMD.

What Is Legal Blindness?

Legal blindness is not the same as complete blindness. In complete blindness, you lose all ability to detect light.

The term “legal blindness” was established to describe people with low vision. There are two methods of being classified as legally blind. The first method evaluates your visual acuity. If your vision is 20/200 or worse using older eye charts or 20/100 using newer eye charts, you’d be classified as legally blind. The second method evaluates your visual field. If your vision in your good eye has a total vision field of 20 degrees or less, you’d be considered legally blind. It’s also called tunnel vision.

How Quickly Does AMD Lead to Legal Blindness?

Dry AMD progresses very slowly, over multiple years. If it only affects one eye, you may not notice vision loss in the early stages. People with dry AMD are more likely to lose their vision if they experience geographic atrophy or if their condition progresses to wet AMD.

Statistics vary on how long it takes someone with dry AMD to lose vision, or even to progress to geographic atrophy. One study found that about 26 percent of the oldest participants (ages 75 to 80) with severe AMD developed central geographic atrophy within 10 years.

If you have wet AMD, you may notice central vision loss quickly, sometimes in just days. However, even people with wet AMD who have already lost some vision may be able to stabilize or reverse those losses with treatment.

Can You Slow AMD Progression and Delay Vision Loss?

You can’t control some risk factors for AMD, like family history. But if you’re worried about vision loss with AMD, there are some steps you can take to delay losing your vision and slow disease progression.

Changes to Your Lifestyle

Doctors recommend certain lifestyle adjustments that may help you slow progression while you’re living with AMD:

• If you smoke, it’s important to quit.
• Eat a healthy diet with a lot of fruits and vegetables, fish, and nuts — and less red meat and dairy products.
• Ensure that your blood pressure is in the healthy range.
• Exercise regularly.

Treatment Options

There are several treatment options for people with wet and dry AMD. Some are available by prescription only and others may be purchased over the counter. These treatments won’t cure existing AMD, but they may help slow the progression.

Vitamin supplements known as the AREDS 2 formula may help slow the progression from dry AMD to wet. They’re also known to prevent dry AMD from moving to your healthy eye if you only have the condition in one eye. The AREDS 2 vitamin supplements typically include:

• 500 milligrams of vitamin C
• 400 international units of vitamin E
• 10 milligrams of lutein
• 2 milligrams of zeaxanthin
• 80 milligrams of zinc oxide
• 2 milligrams of copper

If you have dry AMD that has advanced to geographic atrophy, your doctor may recommend injections of a drug called a complement inhibitor. These medications work by calming your immune system so your retinal cells don’t experience as much damage.

People with wet AMD may be candidates for a different injection called an anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF). These treatments block a protein called VEGF, which causes new blood vessels to grow in your eye.

Your eye care team may also recommend laser photocoagulation or photodynamic therapy to treat wet AMD. Both of these treatments help destroy the blood vessels that are leaking.

Speak With Your Ophthalmologist

Meet with your doctor about whether any lifestyle changes, medications, or other treatment options might help you slow AMD progression. By seeing your ophthalmology team regularly, taking care of your eye health, and following your doctor’s recommended treatment schedule, you may help retain your vision and prevent blindness.

Find Your Team

On myAMDteam, the social network for people with age-related macular degeneration and their loved ones, members come together to ask questions, give advice, and share their stories with those who understand life with AMD.

Have you or a loved one lost vision with AMD? Share your experiences in a comment below or on your Activities page.