Life Is Unclear With Cataracts
Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide. According to Mission Cataract, about 15 million people have lost their vision to cataracts.
How Do Cataracts Happen?
Cataracts affect the lens of your eye. A clear lens will effectively focus your vision. However, cataracts obscure your eye’s lens, either tinting and darkening eyesight, or blurring vision. Cataracts can occur at any stage of life, but they most commonly affect us as we age.
Cataract Surgery Can Restore Sight
Cataracts are progressive, gradually growing until they completely obscure vision. No medication or diet has proven effective against cataracts. However, sight can be restored with cataract surgery, which replaces the compromised lens of your eye with a new, clear, artificial one. Over 1.5 million cataract surgeries are done in the U.S. each year.
Reduce Your Risk
Eye-healthy habits can reduce your risk for cataracts as you age.
- Quit smoking, or never start.
- Avoid overexposure to the sun by guarding your eyes with UV-blocking lenses.
- Maintain control over systemic diseases like diabetes that can affect eye health.
When you are diagnosed with cataracts and have impaired vision that is not correctable with eyeglasses, there will be a series of events that follows:
- Dr Nobbe discusses what type of cataract you have and makes sure that your eye is healthy and capable of surgery. Once Dr Nobbe has determined that you are good candidate for cataract removal, you are then scheduled to see a cataract surgeon.
- The surgeon evaluates the cataract, determines the design of lens implant to use, and sets a date for surgery.
- An appointment with your physician is made to determine that you are healthy for undergoing a surgical procedure.
- Cataract surgeons usually perform the surgery in less than 15 minutes. The patient then has eye drops to use after surgery for several weeks.
- Follow up visits with Dr Nobbe are set at 1 day, 1 week, and 3 weeks following cataract removal.
Your glasses prescription is usually different after surgery, and you may need glasses for reading, distance, or both. Dr Nobbe will re-check your vision after cataract removal and assure your vision is the absolute best it can be.
Treasure Your Eyesight
We recommend that everyone makes annual eye exams a priority in order to catch early signs of changing vision. Show your appreciation for the precious gift of sight by protecting it for years to come.
Protecting your eyes and preserving your vision is important.
- Nutritionally protect/preserve your eyes with Eyepromise vitamin supplements. They include higher levels of Zeaxanthin and Lutein that your eyes need to preserve your sight and in many cases improve your vision.
- Protect your eyes from harmful Blue-violet light associated with electronic devices, such as computers, tablets, and smart phones. Prevencia lenses will do just that and can be made with or without prescription in the eyewear frame of your choice.
- Protect your eyes from harmful Ultra-violet light. You can accomplish this in a clear prescription pair of lenses or in a sunglass pair of prescription or non-prescription pair.
- Physically protect your eyes with safety glasses (or prescription safety glasses) when doing activities that can harm your eyes, such as using power tools, mowing, etc. This is especially true if you have one eye that provides most of your vision.