Cataracts

A cataract is a "clouding" of the lens inside your eye. The lens is located just behind the iris, or the colored part of your eye, and works like the lens of a camera. It picks up images and then focuses the lights, colors, and shapes on to the retina. Once images reach the retina, they are then transmitted to the brain for processing.

When a cataract develops in the lens, vision may become cloudy or blurry. Colors may seem to fade or appear dull, and you may begin to have difficulty performing daily tasks.

There are many different kinds of cataracts that can develop, and some progress faster than others. While the majority are related to normal aging changes, other conditions, like diabetes, smoking, alcohol use, and prolonged exposure to sunlight can increase one's risk of developing cataracts. As your cataracts progress, your eye doctor may recommend that you consider cataract surgery.

Surgery is used to remove a cataract when vision loss interferes with everyday activities such as driving, reading, or watching TV. If you have cataracts in both eyes, the surgery will be performed on each eye at separate times, usually several weeks apart. Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure that is performed in a hospital or surgical center, and patients are sent home the same day that the procedure is performed.

You may have a choice to make regarding the type of lens implant that you wish to receive. Some specialty implants are designed to correct astigmatism, while there are also implants, like ReSTOR® and ReZoom™, that correct both distance and near vision at the same time, completely eliminating the need for glasses!

ReSTOR® lens implants by AcrySof® are artificial lenses made of a soft plastic material that can be folded prior to insertion, allowing for smaller incisions and quicker healing time. They are designed to replace the natural clouded lenses in cataract patients and provide patients with a full range of vision—up close, at mid-range, and at greater distances. The technology behind ReSTOR® lens implants is a patented process called apodized diffraction — the gradual bending of light as it passes through different heights. By combining apodized diffraction with refractive technology, ReSTOR® lens implants enable the eyes to focus on multiple images at varying distances.

ReZoom™ lens implants by Advanced Medical Optics (AMO®) are artificial lenses made of high-refractive-index acrylic material. Like ReSTOR® lens implants, ReZoom™ lens implants are soft and can be folded prior to insertion into the eye. Based on Balanced View Optics™ Technology, ReZoom™ lens implants allow patients to see well at a variety of distances and under varying light conditions. Each lens has five different zones: bright light/distance dominant; near dominant in moderate to low light; distance in moderate to low light; near dominant in a range of lighting conditions; and low light/distance dominant. With ReZoom™ lens implants, you can see well whether you are driving at night, reading a book, or playing golf in the sun.

At Optometric Care, our doctors will guide you in scheduling all of your appointments, including pre-operative consultations, surgical dates, and post-operative follow-up exams in our office. During your pre-operative consultation, our doctors will provide you with valuable information about the procedure and also lens options that are available, including ReStor, ReZoom, and implants for astigmatism.

To learn more about cataracts, please visit the National Eye Institute at http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/cataract/cataract_facts.asp.

If you would like to learn more about the services we offer, please contact Optometric Care today!