What is a Cataract?

With the formation of a cataract, activities like reading, bowling, or driving can be difficult. Fortunately, vision can be restored quickly, allowing the patient to return home within a few hours. With new advances in cataract surgery, vision improvement begins almost immediately, and an eye patch isn't even needed.

A cataract is a slow, progressive clouding of the eye's natural lens. It interferes with light passing through the eye to the retina. Cataracts are caused by a change in the proteins of the eye, which causes clouding or discoloration of the lens. Over time cataracts typically result in blurred or fuzzy vision and sensitivity to light.

People with progressed cataracts often describe the sensation as looking through a piece of wax paper. A cataract may make light from the sun or a lamp seem too bright, causing glare. Colors may not appear as bright as they once did, however, most cataracts develop so slowly that people usually don’t realize that their color vision has markedly deteriorated. Oncoming headlights may cause uncomfortable glare at night, making driving more difficult. There is a myth that cataracts have to “ripen’, before they can be removed. This was true before about 1930, when the surgical technique to remove cataracts was quite primitive and the surgical outcome was essentially awful, even in uncomplicated cases. Patients essentially had to be blind from their cataract before surgery, so they could appreciate the poor vision that their very thick glasses provided afterward. These days, when the average cataract patient usually sees better after surgery than his peers who may have minimal cataract, we wait until the patient finds that the cataract is interfering in his lifestyle. Patients have cataract surgery because they are having difficulty seeing the golf ball, or reading the financial pages, or have difficulty driving at night. The most common response on the day after surgery is, When can I have the other eye done? followed by, Why did I wait so long?.

Questions Commonly Asked about Cataracts or Cataract Surgery
Causes of Cataracts

Getting older presents the most common reason for developing cataracts but listed below are some other items that may cause cataracts to progress more quickly. CAUSES getting older , birth defects, environmental factors, accidents or Injuries and exposure to ultraviolet light

What is a cataract?

A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s lens, which can lead to vision problems. The most common type of cataract is related to aging. More than half of all Americans over the age of 65 will have a cataract. Most cataracts are caused by the functions of the body breaking down. Eye trauma, such as from a puncture wound, may also result in cataracts.

Cataracts are classified as one of three types:

1. A nuclear cataract is most commonly seen as it forms. This cataract forms in the nucleus, the center of the lens, and is due to natural aging changes.
2. A cortical cataract, which forms in the lens cortex, gradually extends its spokes from the outside of the lens to the center. Many diabetics develop cortical cataracts.
3. A subcapsular cataract begins at the back of the lens. People with diabetes, high farsightedness, retinitis pigmentosa or those taking high doses of steroids may develop a subcapsular cataract.

What are the symptoms?

A cataract starts out small, and at first has little effect on your vision. You may notice that your vision is blurred a little, like looking through a cloudy piece of glass. Colors may not appear as bright as they once did The most common symptoms of a cataract are:

• Cloudy or blurry vision.
• Problems with light, such as headlights that seem too bright, glare from lamps or very bright sunlight. 
• Colors that seem faded. 
• Poor night vision. 
• Double or multiple vision. 
• Frequent changes in glasses or contact lenses.