What happens to the vision if a person has macular degeneration?

Central vision loss: At it's most extreme, macular degeneration causes the central macula, or the most acute vision center of the eye, to be damaged. The vision loss can be severe, but usually the peripheral vision is spared and can be used to get around.

Varies: Sometimes the vision is not affected, sometimes the vision gets distorted (wavy, crooked, broken lines, or dark spots on amsler grid), and sometimes severe central vision loss can occur. Depends on the degree of the disease and complications from it.

Fairly common: Macular degeneration was the most common cause of legal blindness in individuals over 50. With modern treatment strategies, severe vision loss is much less common. Some degree of vision impairment usually develops with this chronic degenerative disease over time. The earliest symptoms include delay in adjusting to dim light ; needing more light to read. Visual acuity decline follows.