To many of my patients, this sounds like a terrible disease that I just diagnosed them with but to us eye care professionals, this is a remarkably familiar and easy to fix condition. The most common type of cataract is caused by a natural clouding of the lens inside our eye. It is not an urgent condition and treatment can wait, sometimes as much as several years but without intervention, the vision will be affected and get worse over time.
The treatment does involve surgery where the clouded lens is replaced by a clear one. Due to advances in medical science, this whole procedure only takes an average of 15-30 minutes and can often be done in an in-office setting. One big bonus is that the lens implant can be calculated to offset any prescription you may have so that the patient is often glasses-free for distance viewing (reading glasses are still needed). Not a bad deal if you were used to wearing glasses all your life.
So, do not be afraid if your eye doctor says “cataracts”. It just may lead to a whole new lease on life with clear vision to enjoy all the things that matter!
