August is Cataract Awareness Month…Did you know that approximately 20.5 million Americans age 40 and older have cataracts? Did you know that cataract is one of the most curable causes of vision loss? Do you really know what a cataract is even though you have heard it mentioned hundreds of times by friends and news sources?

A cataract is the clouding of the eye’s normally clear lens, blocking the passage of light needed for vision. The natural lens allows light to travel through the eye and aids in focusing the images on the retina or the film of the eye. Individuals who develop cataracts suffer from blurred vision, fading or yellowing of colors, sensitivity to glare and/ or bright light or trouble driving at night.

Cataracts forms slowly and causes no pain. Cataracts may remain small and without symptoms, but can also grow and begin to degrade a person’s vision. The pace at which cataracts mature is variable and unpredictable.

Cataracts is the leading cause of blindness worldwide; however, in most cases, vision loss is reversible. Thanks to new techniques developed over the past decade, cataract surgery has become one of the safest and most successful procedures available in terms of restoring quality of life to patients.

Contrary to popular belief, there are no drugs or exercises that will make a cataract disappear and this vision problem is not removed using lasers, although lasers are used in follow up procedures to fine tune the vision, if needed. Most cataract surgery is done in an outpatient setting, where local anesthesia is utilized. Often times, only anesthetic drops are used.

During the procedure, the cloudy natural lens is removed using a form of ultrasound called phacoemulsification. The lens is then replaced with an artificial lens called an intraocular lens. The patient also is able to participate in the decision making process, as to which artificial lens is chosen. The surgeon should help guide the patient through this process in order to achieve the patients’ goals.

The technology of cataract surgery is constantly evolving and improving. In most cases, the improvement in the patient’s vision is profound and rapid. It is quite common to decrease spectacle dependence significantly after surgery and, in many cases, eliminate spectacles entirely for both distance vision and reading vision…something that was not possible until approximately five years ago.

Modern medicine and advanced cataract microsurgery has made it possible for patients to no longer wait until the cataract is “ripe” and to consider removal when it begins to interfere with the things one likes to do on a daily basis.

Although quite safe, cataract surgery is still surgical procedure and the only person who can truly decide if your quality of life is being compromised by the cataracts is you. If you think you have deterioration of your vision due to cataracts, please seek the opinion of your eye physician.

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