What is a Cataract and When Should I Have Cataract Surgery?

Simply put, a cataract is a clouding of the lens inside your eye. This is a natural part of aging and if you are over 55, there’s a good chance you may have some form of cataracts. When the lens becomes clouded with the cataract, it prevents light and images from reaching the retina.

Vision with cataracts has been described as seeing life through a cloudy window – objects become blurred, colors become dull and seeing at night becomes much more difficult.

Currently, there is no medical treatment to reverse or prevent the development of cataracts. Once they form, there is only one way to achieve clear vision again, and that is to surgically remove the cataract from inside the eye and replace it with one of several types of intraocular lenses (IOL’s).

A cataract does not have to become “ripe” before it can be removed. In the past, the lens could not be extracted safely from the eye unless it was at a relatively advanced stage of development. With modern advances in cataract surgery, the lens can now be removed from the eye at any stage of development. In short, if an individual has a cataract and resultant blurred vision that makes it difficult to do anything he or she wants and needs to do; it is time to consider cataract surgery.