The Valeda Light Delivery System is a photobiobodulation therapy that shoots wavelengths of light into the patient’s eyes, Dr. John Michael Garrett said.

“It takes only five to ten minutes to do. It’s painless and has no side effects. It is a bright light, so the only people that can’t have it is if they’re prone to seizures from flashing lights. It’s a series of nine treatments,” he said.

What encouraged him to get this equipment was his own ocular CT exam detected early stage markers for possibly developing macular degeneration at a later date.

“What attracted this to me was myself. I am the first patient that got the treatment here,” he said.

The Garrett Eye Center, 1301 Carpenter Ave. in Iron Mountain, offers many different treatment options for various eye conditions. (Marguerite Lanthier/Daily News photo)

Dr. Garrett shares, “I am fortunate to have excellent 20/15 vision and still do not require glasses, even for reading. I believe the Valeda treatment is an outstanding option for individuals like myself who have always enjoyed perfect vision and wish to preserve it.”

“Right now the only treatment that we offer to our patients is AREDS2 vitamins. These are over the counter vitamins,” he explained. “And patients pick it up and they take it the rest of their lives. It’s only one-third effective in slowing down macular degeneration. So this is the first treatment for dry macular degeneration at its early stage.”

A patient would get an ocular CT that will determine if they have macular degeneration. If they do and it’s the right time, then they can offer this new treatment.

“This is for someone, who still has good or minimum-decreased vision, who’ve lost a few lines of vision. This will help them. The amazing thing, not only did it slow it down, it actually reversed some of it. That’s the amazing thing about this. I would have this, even if it just slowed it down,” he said. “But sight is so important, especially with me.”

Helping treat dry macular degeneration at the early stages could help patients by preventing it from getting to the advanced stages, where there are fewer treatment options, he said.

“There are expensive injections that are available for advanced dry macular degeneration. They only work 25 percent of the time. But the FDA approved them because there’s nothing else available,” he said.

Wet or bleeding macular degeneration can be treated with medications. There have been many advancements over the years for treating wet macular degeneration. One common medication is Avastin.

“That’s been a game changer,” Garrett said. “Twenty years ago we didn’t have anything and people just lost their vision. And there was nothing we could do from a retina standpoint.”

Garrett has brought many new treatments to the area since he opened his office in 1979. He added his cataract surgical center in 1987, the first and only non-hospital out-patient surgery center in the Upper Peninsula. Some of the conditions they treat include: cataracts, glaucoma, retinal disease, and diabetic eye disease. They provide laser vision correction for near-sightedness, far-sightedness, and astigmatism.

The Garrett Eye Center is at 1301 Carpenter Ave. in Iron Mountain. For more information, go to the website at https://www.garretteye.com/.