FARGO – It seems we are always waiting for the next big medical treatment or cure for troubling diseases and ailments.

Now, imagine that a special light, just approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration , is getting promising results for those suffering from a common eye condition, dry macular degeneration.

In the past, treatments for that have been limited and sometimes involve painful eye injections.

But now there is heavily researched technology that’s available in just a handful of cities, including Fargo. The treatment is called Valeda.

“(Fifteen) seconds,” Erin Jensen, a Valeda coordinator at Bergstrom Eye, said to patient Anna Marie Johnson of Fargo.

Johnson had great vision until about a year ago.

“Looking at my venetian blind, it looked wiggly-squiggly,” she said.

Those squiggly lines, it turns out, were signs of dry macular degeneration. A common eye disease impacting 20 million Americans.

“Last one, eyes closed,” Jensen said.

Bergstrom Eye in Fargo is one of just a few ophthalmology clinics in the country to get this new FDA-approved machine called a Valeda. It uses red light to treat the dry macular degeneration.

“The red light targets mitochondria, which is the powerhouse of the cells, but as we get older we have a buildup of drusen (yellow or white deposits that form beneath the retina of the eye) in our macula,” Dr. Lance Bergstrom said.

Evidence coming in from the new treatment is promising. The troubling deposits on the eye are reduced and cellular function is improved.

“It is super exciting because this is a subset of patients that we haven’t been able to do much other than watch, and patients love the idea of lowering their chance of needing a shot, no one likes a needle in their eye,” Bergstrom said.

For people like Johnson, who is 89, it means a promising treatment for her dry macular degeneration.

“This is really great, I am just impressed,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t hurt and you can blink while it is going on.”

Johnson just finished her tenth treatment. She has another in four months.

And it means living independently and driving without fear of her eyesight getting to be a concern. Maybe decades down the road, the medical community will look back at patients like Johnson as pioneers.

“It just might, and I hope I was a part of it,” she said.

Right now, insurance doesn’t pay for the red light therapy. As more people get the procedure, that is expected to change.

For questions on eligibility, visit www.bergstromeye.com .