Can anyone explain how these are detected? I went for an eye checkup at the hospital after presenting symptoms of retinal tears. The doctor dilated my eyes and looked into them, then put more drops in (orange coloured, I think) and looked into them with a purple light. Then he shon a bright torch which he wore on his head and asked me to look past his shoulder.

He said my eyes were "fine" (aside from lattice degeneration and obvious high myopia). But then asked me if there was a family history of glaucoma. What would constitute as "family history"? My grandmother's sister has it and my grandad's mum. I'm worried why he asked this, as wouldn't the tests he gave been able to detect either of these conditions?

Just give him that information.
He will know whether it's significant.

Emma, the yellow drops are an anesthetic. When the doc looked at your eyes through the machine, it touched your eyeball, measuring the pressure. I know it doesn't seem like it touches the eye. Another glaucoma test is done with a machine that shoots a puff of air at your eye. Perhaps the doc asked for your history because your reading was on the high side of normal. When I have a glaucoma test done, I always ask for the numbers, out of curiosity.

Cataracts are visible to the examining doctor when he uses that bright light to look inside the eyeball. Cataracts make the lenses appear cloudy or yellowish. Bad ones can prevent the doc from seeing through your lenses at all.

Thankyou very much for your replies. I feel better already knowing this. I didn't know that the thing touched my eye, it really didn't feel like it, but now I do recall him lifting my lids up as he did it, so it makes sense.

I had the air-puff test done twice when I initially visited my opticians, because he dilated my eyes, so I was tested before and after for any change in pressure. All they said was it was the same before and after.

Is it that people with high pressure (but still in the "normal" bracket) are at increased risk at developing it? He asked me the question after I asked him about the possibility of getting intraoccular lenses, which I know for glaucoma patients is not an option.

I would think as long as your pressure is within the normal range, it's normal.
You can ask whichever doctor gets a copy of your tests what your pressure is. You're entitled to know.