Cataracts

What is a cataract?

A cataract is an alteration within your eye lens. As you age, natural changes within the eyes cause proteins to break down, leading to clumps that cloud your eye lens. This creates a light barrier, similar to a blind covering your retina. 

When you can't process light properly, you develop blurry vision and other visual issues such as: 

• Foggy vision
• Increased glare
• Halos around lights
• Needing more light to read
• Difficulty driving at night 

Eventually, the vision problems can grow so pronounced that you can't see well enough to perform your ordinary daily routines. 

Although aging is the main cause of cataracts, in rare cases, they occur in children. Some diseases, medications, and eye trauma can also cause cataracts. 

How do you treat cataracts?

It depends on how your cataract affects your vision. If you're not having symptoms that interfere with your functionality, updating your eyeglasses prescription may be sufficient. In the longer term, cataract surgery is the gold standard solution for cataracts. 

There are no medications that can reverse a cataract, but surgery can remove it and give you a new, fully functional eye lens. Eye Treatment Center offers both traditional cataract surgery and the latest advanced technology, femtosecond laser cataract surgery. 

How does laser cataract surgery work?

In laser cataract surgery, your Eye Treatment Center surgeon uses an advanced imaging system to scan your eye, creating a virtual blueprint. Your surgeon uses this 3D map to plan your surgery with the utmost precision. They program the laser to create incisions exactly where they're needed for cataracts, skipping the need for a surgical blade. 

If needed, your surgeon can also program the laser to soften the cataract for more efficient removal and faster healing. If you have astigmatism, which is common in patients with cataracts, the laser can also create the precise incisions needed for optimal correction.

After removing your eye lens, your surgeon implants a new clear replacement. 

Monofocal

Monofocal lenses correct distance vision. A monofocal lens doesn’t treat presbyopia (age-related inability to focus on close-up objects), so you’ll need to wear computer and reading glasses if you choose a monofocal lens.

Multifocal

Multifocal lenses divide the lens into three sections for near, intermediate, and distance vision. Usually, a multifocal lens decreases your dependence on reading glasses.

The Light Adjustable Lens ™ 

The Light Adjustable Lens ™ is an intraocular lens that allows surgeons to fine-tune the lens power to the patient's desired prescription after surgical implantation.  The lens is made of a special photosensitive material that can change its focusing power in response to UV light.    After surgery, the patient can trial out the vision from the implants to determine if enhancements are needed to increase the range of vision at any particular distance (near, intermediate or far).   Then the patient returns to the office for UV laser treatments to make the adjustments until the desired results are achieved after which the focusing power is permanently locked in.  

 
If your goal is to see without glasses or wear reading glasses as little as possible, a multifocal or light-adjustable lens is usually the best choice. Even if a multifocal lens isn't right for you, or if you have macular degeneration or glaucoma, you could still potentially benefit from a light-adjustable lens.

Call Eye Treatment Center or book online for cataract care from leading Long Beach, California, specialists today.