Cataract FAQs

Behind your iris, or the area of your eye with color, lies the lens. Your eye’s lens helps refract light, so it can help your brain focus enough to see. Your lens is normally clear. A cataract turns the clear lens cloudy.

There are five main types of cataracts.

• Nuclear cataracts: these are in the center of your vision
• Cortical cataracts: these are around the edges of your lens
• Posterior subcapsular cataracts: these are in the back of your lens
• Traumatic cataracts: these are caused by injury to your lens
• Congenital cataracts: these are caused by your genes and seen in babies

You should see an eye doctor or ophthalmologist for an eye exam if you experience these symptoms:

• Blurry vision that does not go away
• Everything looks as if a cottony film is over it
• Dim vision
• Colors seem faded or all take on a yellowish hue
• Night blindness
• Normal levels of light can be painful
• Halos or rings of light appear around all lights
• Need to turn on more lights in order to get by

You can have the beginnings of cataracts and not have any changes in your vision. These cataracts can be spotted during an eye exam.

Unfortunately, no. They always get worse over time.

Cataracts are the world’s leading cause of blindness.

There is only one treatment option to remove cataracts: surgery to replace your cloudy lens with a clear artificial lens. Before cataracts become a serious issue for you, however, typically vision solutions such as glasses and contact lenses can mediate your symptoms.

This can be done in a hospital or an eye care clinic. You are awake for the eye surgery. Your eyes are numbed and you are sedated. Only one eye is done at a time, so you aren’t left blind. You will not be able to drive home after surgery. You need to see your eye doctor the very next day, and take eye drops to help heal.