What is a cataract?
A cataract is the clouding of the lens in the eye. This natural lens lies behind the iris and pupil. It blurs your vision. Cataracts are very common in older people.
What do people with cataracts experience while seeing?
People with cataracts experience the following problems while seeing:
- Sensitivity to glare
- Cloudy, fuzzy, foggy, or filmy vision
- Difficulty seeing at night or in dim light
- Double vision
- Loss of color intensity
- Problems seeing shapes against a background
- Problem recognizing the difference between shades of colors
- Seeing halos around lights
- Frequent changes in eyeglass prescriptions
Cataracts develops suddenly.
Cataracts develop slowly and painlessly. An affected person feels like looking through a cloudy piece of glass. Vision in the affected eye slowly gets worse.Cataracts lead to decreased vision even in daylight.
What are the causes of cataracts?
The lens of the eye is normally clear. It is just like the lens on a camera, focusing light as it passes to the back of the eye. This allows the lens to focus on an object, whether it is close or far away. The lens of the eye does not change until a person is around the age of 45. As a person ages, proteins in the lens begin to break down. As a result, the lens becomes cloudy. What the eye sees may appear blurry. This eye condition is known as a cataract.In many cases, the cause of cataract is unknown. The following are the factors that may speed up cataract formation:
- Old age
- Eye injury
- Family history of cataracts
- Eye inflammation
- Diabetes
- Long-term use of oral corticosteroids or certain other medicines
- Radiation exposure
- Smoking
- Surgery for another eye problem
- Too much exposure to ultraviolet light
The only treatment for cataracts is surgery.
The only treatment for a cataract is surgery to remove it. Surgery is usually not necessary if a cataract is not making it hard for you to see. The eye doctor may recommend the following treatment for early cataract:
- Change in eyeglass prescription
- Better lighting
- Magnifying lenses
- Sunglasses
- Surgery is usually recommended when you cannot perform normal activities such as driving, reading, or looking at computer or video screens, even with glasses.
Cataracts can occur in both eyes.
A cataract can occur in either one eye or both eyes. Most people with cataracts have similar changes in both eyes, though one eye may be worse than the other. Often there are only mild vision changes.
Cataracts is diagnosed by ________
An eye doctor will perform a standard eye exam as well as a slit-lamp examination to diagnose cataracts. When there is no clear diagnosis of a cataract, other tests may be done to rule out other causes of poor vision.
What are the symptoms of cataracts?
The main symptom is a little blurring of the vision. An affected person feels like looking through a cloudy piece of glass. Cataracts develop slowly and painlessly. Vision in the affected eye slowly gets worse.Cataracts lead to decreased vision even in daylight. A cataract can occur in either or both eyes.Most people with cataracts have similar changes in both eyes, though one eye may be worse than the other. Often there are only mild vision changes. The following are the common symptoms:
- A hazy and blurred vision
- Mild clouding of the lens often occurs after age 60. But it may not cause any vision problems.
- By age 75, most people have cataracts that affect their vision.
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