If you’ve ever tried driving your car early in the morning, you may have had a hard time seeing through the foggy windshield. This can be quite frustrating, and for those living with cataracts, everyday tasks feel this way all the time: cloudy and blurred. It can create obstacles to driving, walking, and reading. Here at Medical Eye Center, helping people who experience cataract problems is something we are well acquainted with, and our cataract surgeons offer compassionate and quality care options for our patients.
What are cataracts?
A cataract is a clouding of the eye’s lens. Cataracts can occur gradually, and the side effects can be temporarily helped by things like eyeglasses or lighting. The condition generally affects both eyes but can occur at different rates in each eye. Cataracts can develop due to multiple factors, including age, injury, diabetes, genetic conditions, or previous eye surgeries. Over time, cataracts will begin to cause severe problems such as:
- Clouded or blurry vision
- Struggles seeing at night or in dim light
- Seeing a “halo” around items
- Faded colors, or seeing yellowed hues
What is the treatment for cataracts?
Although there are many ways to keep your eyes healthy if you are at risk for cataracts or experiencing them (such as healthy eating and regular eye appointments), the only way to remove a cataract is through surgery. Early on, you can use magnification lenses for reading or other tasks, use brighter lights, or get new prescriptions for your glasses/contacts. As the cataract progresses, your doctor may recommend surgery. Cataract surgery involves replacing your eye lens with something called an Intraocular Lens (IOL), and 9 out of 10 people experience vision improvement.
What happens during cataract surgery?
The Cleveland Clinic estimates that half of all Americans over the age of 80 have cataracts or have had cataract surgery. This makes the surgical procedure very common. First, you will have the area numbed with medication, and you will be given medication to relax. Although you will be awake (using conscious sedation under the supervision of our Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists), the surgery should be approximately 15-20 minutes, and you will not be experiencing pain. During the surgery, your cataract surgeon will make tiny incisions around the lens, and break it up using ultrasound waves. Once it’s removed, they will replace it with the new IOL. People are able to go home the same day and see improvement in about two to four weeks.
Why should I choose Medical Eye Center for my cataract surgery?
Your vision is a precious asset, and you want to entrust it to a clinic backed by experience. At Medical Eye Center, we are proud to offer expertly trained cataract surgeons who have performed over 17,000 cataract surgeries, and who are among the most experienced in the country. Before your procedure, you will come in for a comprehensive eye exam, where the eye doctor can assess your health history and lifestyle to decide which type of lens is right for you. We are proud to offer these surgical cataract options on-site.
Medical Eye Center offers two types of Intraocular lenses:
- Single Focus Intraocular Lens: As the name implies, these feature one point of focus, usually for distance vision. If you choose this option, you may need glasses for activities like reading or to see distant items more clearly, depending on where the point of focus is.
- Custom Intraocular Lens: Custom lenses are advanced implants that treat cataracts, but also can help with distance vision and reading, much like glasses would. Your provider can help you decide which one is right for you. Read more about our Custom Lenses here.
- Medical Eye Center also offers the RX Sight Lens (one of our custom lens choices), which is the first cataract treatment that is customizable after surgery. This is deeply effective since it can be hard to predict how the healing process will affect vision until after surgery. After surgery, your provider can easily adjust your lens to improve your vision using simple, light-based treatments. The US Food and Drug Administration has found that those who receive the RX Sight Lens were 2x as likely to achieve 20/20 vision than those with a single focus lens.
If you’re experiencing changes to your quality of life due to cataract progression, please reach out to us today. We know that receiving empathetic and experienced care can be life-changing for so many of our patients, and we look forward to sharing what options might be right for you. Give one of our two locations a call today at 1-800-824-2688, and begin to reclaim your vision with a cataract surgeon near you.
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