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Home / How Do You Know if You Have Cataracts

How Do You Know if You Have Cataracts

Overview

Anatomy of the eye

What is a cataract?

A cataract develops when the lens in your eye, which is normally clear, becomes foggy.

For your eye to see, light passes through a articulate lens. The lens is behind your iris (colored office of your eye). The lens focuses the calorie-free so that your brain and middle can work together to procedure information into a picture.

When a cataract clouds over the lens, your eye can't focus light in the aforementioned way. This leads to blurry vision or other vision loss (trouble seeing). Your vision change depends on the cataract's location and size.

Who gets cataracts?

Most people outset getting cataracts around age 40. Merely you probably won't notice symptoms until after age threescore. Rarely, babies are born with cataracts due to a birth defect.

You're more than likely to develop cataracts if you lot:

  • Smoke cigarettes.
  • Live in an surface area with bad air pollution.
  • Apply alcohol heavily.
  • Have a family history of cataracts.

How common are cataracts?

Cataracts are common among older people. More l% of people historic period fourscore and older have had cataracts.

Tin you get cataracts in both eyes?

You can get cataracts in both eyes. But one heart may be worse than the other or develop at a subsequently fourth dimension.

Symptoms and Causes

What causes a cataract?

The lens of your center is mostly water and proteins. As proteins break down over time, they hang around in your eye. These lingering proteins can make your lens cloudy, so it's difficult to come across clearly. This is a typical — though unpleasant — function of aging.

Some things can speed up the formation of cataracts, such as:

  • Diabetes.
  • Steroids, common medications to treat atmospheric condition similar arthritis and lupus.
  • Phenothiazine drugs such equally chlorpromazine (Thorazine®), used to treat a variety of atmospheric condition such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
  • Centre surgery or eye injuries.
  • Radiation treatment to your upper trunk.
  • Spending a lot of time in the sun without middle protection, like sunglasses.

What are the symptoms of a cataract?

Cataracts are a common part of the heart'south aging process. Eventually, they can cause:

  • Vision that's cloudy, blurry, foggy or filmy.
  • Sensitivity to bright sunlight, lamps or headlights.
  • Glare (seeing a halo around lights), especially when you drive at night with oncoming headlights.
  • Prescription changes in glasses, including sudden nearsightedness.
  • Double vision.
  • Need for brighter light to read.
  • Difficulty seeing at night (poor night vision).
  • Changes in the way y'all see color.

Are cataracts painful?

Cataracts don't usually injure. But they can cause discomfort by making your eyes more than sensitive to light.

Diagnosis and Tests

How is a cataract diagnosed?

If y'all have cataract symptoms, see an heart doctor (ophthalmologist) for a consummate exam. The doctor will need to dilate your pupil to meet within your heart. During this test, special eye drops widen your educatee (the blackness part of the eye). When the pupil is broad open up, your doctor checks the health of your eye. Your md can see if you take cataracts or other problems and find out how much of your vision is blocked.

Management and Treatment

How is a cataract treated?

If your cataract symptoms are mild, you lot might merely need a new prescription for spectacles or contacts. Cataracts usually worsen over time, though. Eventually, your doctor will likely recommend surgery to remove the cataract.

At what phase should cataracts exist removed?

Most people wait until a cataract causes enough vision loss to be a trouble, similar making it difficult to read or drive. Sometimes people need cataract surgery to encounter and treat other center conditions, such as historic period-related changes in the retina (tissue at the back of the middle) or diabetic retinopathy.

Who removes cataracts?

An ophthalmologist (doctor who specializes in eye health) performs cataract removal surgery.

How are cataracts removed?

During cataract surgery, the surgeon removes the clouded lens and replaces it with an artificial lens implant. The new lens is clear, shaped to fit your middle and personalized to your vision needs.

Cataract removal takes nigh an hour. Information technology's done with local anesthesia (medication to numb a specific area). Your doctor volition utilise heart drops or a shot to numb your eye. You lot'll exist awake, but you won't feel or meet the procedure.

What are the different types of cataract surgery?

There are two types of procedures to remove cataracts:

Phacoemulsification cataract surgery

Phacoemulsification is the almost common process for cataracts. Your ophthalmologist makes a pocket-size opening in the centre to achieve the overcast lens. Using high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) or a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, your ophthalmologist breaks the lens into pieces. Then the medico suctions lens fragments from your heart and puts in a new plastic lens.

Extracapsular cataract surgery

Your medico might recommend this procedure if the phacoemulsification technique isn't a good option for yous. For example, an advanced cataract might be too dense to break autonomously easily.

In extracapsular cataract surgery, your ophthalmologist makes a larger opening in the eye. Instead of breaking up the lens and then removing it, your doctor removes the lens in one slice. Then the surgeon inserts the manufactured lens.

What tin can I expect after surgery?

Afterward surgery, it'south typical to have a day or 2 of:

  • Itching.
  • Mild discomfort.
  • Watery centre.
  • Sensitivity to low-cal.
  • Blurry vision.

For a few weeks subsequently surgery, you may need to use eye drops. The drops assistance you heal, prevent infection and control the pressure inside your middle. During those weeks you'll also want to avert:

  • Touching your eyes.
  • Angle over.
  • Lifting heavy things.
  • Doing anything that risks injuring your eye.

How much time does it take to recover from cataract surgery?

Your center should heal within viii weeks. Simply you can go nearly your daily activities as soon as a day after the surgery.

Is cataract surgery safe?

Cataract surgery is one of the safest and most frequently performed surgeries in the U.S. The chance of whatsoever complications is extremely low. But you should always hash out the risks of whatsoever surgery with your physician. Some people do have an infection or vision loss after the procedure.

How painful is cataract surgery?

You shouldn't experience anything during the cataract removal surgery. Afterward, you lot may take mild hurting and discomfort. Your doctor can requite y'all a pain reliever to employ for the first day or two.

Prevention

Can cataracts be prevented?

Developing cataracts is a typical function of aging. You can take a few steps to protect your centre health and slow the procedure:

  • Quit smoking.
  • Vesture sunglasses and a lid with a brim to keep sun out of your eyes.
  • Get regular eye care. Have your eyes dilated once every two years after age 60. Surgery may exist easier if you get treated sooner.

Outlook / Prognosis

How shortly will my vision amend after surgery?

You may have some blurriness for a few days after cataract removal. Simply you should notice improved vision within the first several weeks. Nine out of 10 people encounter improve after cataract removal.

You still may demand to wear glasses or contacts after cataract surgery. Your prescription may change, so be prepared to purchase a new pair of eyeglasses or contacts. If yous've had light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation vision repair (LASIK®), you may demand to repeat it or wear glasses or contacts later cataract removal.

Volition I demand to have cataract surgery again in the time to come?

If both your optics demand cataract surgery, your doc will probably schedule your surgeries several months apart. Separating the surgery gives both eyes a run a risk to heal. It likewise minimizes the disruption on your life. The lens implants for cataracts are permanent and unremarkably don't need to be replaced.

In some rare cases, you can develop what'southward chosen a secondary cataract. Cloudiness builds up on the surface of the artificial lens weeks, months or years after surgery. It's fixed with a quick laser surgery called posterior capsulotomy. The process takes just five minutes. Your ophthalmologist uses a laser to make an opening in the lens to let light in again. You sight should better within 24 hours.

Living With

How tin I see ameliorate without surgery?

Early, your vision loss from cataracts may be balmy. You tin can effort managing information technology by:

  • Using a magnifying glass for reading.
  • Wearing polarized sunglasses, which reduce glare.
  • Using brighter low-cal bulbs, since it's easier to see with more light.

A notation from Cleveland Clinic

As you go older, it's typical to develop cataracts and some vision issues. Simply you don't have to put up with it. Cataract removal surgery is one of the safest and most constructive surgeries performed in the U.S. It's quick and relatively painless. It gives clear eyesight back to 90% of people and rarely causes complications.

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Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/8589-cataracts