Everything You Need to Know About Eye Cataracts

Are you aging and your vision getting cloudy? You might have cataracts on your natural intraocular lenses. You don’t have to panic about your eye condition since you can visit an optometrist near you and get treatments.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Eye Cataracts?

Cataracts start forming slowly. Therefore, you might go without noticing you have eye cataracts. The common signs and symptoms of eye cataracts include:

• Blurry, cloudy, foggy, or filmy vision
• Myopia in older people
• Difficulties driving at night due to glares from traffic lights
• Glare problems during the day
• Double vision on the eye that is affected
• Eyeglasses and contact lenses not working properly

If you experience such signs and symptoms, you can contact your eye doctor for an eye exam and treatments.

Causes and Types of Vision Cloudiness

Cataracts form on your eyes due to protein deposits causing vision blurriness. The protein build-up keeps light from passing through the lenses. There are several types of cataracts which include:

Nuclear Cataracts

Nuclear ones are the most commonly diagnosed types of cataracts. This type of cataracts forms in the center or nucleus of the intraocular lenses. When you develop nuclear cataracts, your reading vision gets affected and becomes poor.

Cortical Cataracts

Cortical cataracts form on the cortex of the intraocular lenses. These cataracts start as white wedges pointing to the center of the intraocular lens. As cortical cataracts grow, they scatter light, causing glares. Therefore, you might have vision problems while driving at night.

Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts

This type of cataracts forms just inside the back of your lens capsule. Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts are directly in the way of light as it passes through the lenses. Therefore, they affect your close-up vision and cause blurry vision.

Anterior Subcapsular Cataracts

Anterior subscapular cataracts form right in front of the eye lenses. Some of the causes of this kind of cataracts include:

• Injury
• Eczema
• Atopic dermatitis
• Inflammation in your eye

There are other types of cataracts, which include:

• Congenital cataracts
• Traumatic cataracts
• Radiation cataracts
• Secondary cataracts
• Lamellar or zonular cataracts
• Posterior and anterior polar cataracts
• Post vitrectomy cataracts
• Diabetic snowflake cataracts

Diagnosing Cataracts

To diagnose cataracts, your optometrist near you, will want to know about your symptoms. After listening to your concerns, our optometrist in Vaughan will look closely into your eyes and conduct some tests. Some of the tests that can help diagnose cataracts include:

Visual Acuity Test

A visual acuity test entails the use of an eye chart to determine the sharpness of your vision. During the test, the optometrist will ask you to read a chart with letters from different distances and sometimes conduct a glare test.

Slit Lamp Test

During the slit lamp test, your eye doctor uses a microscope to check the inner parts of your eye. The optometrist will examine the cornea, clear outer layer, iris, and intraocular lenses. Since the lenses bend light, your optometrist can see through them to check for the presence of cataracts.

Retinal Exam

A retinal exam entails putting some dilation eye drops in your eyes to widen the pupils. With the pupils widened, your optometrist has a clear view of the intraocular lens and retina. Therefore, your eye doctor can evaluate for cataracts and check the health of the retina.

What to Expect During Cataract Treatment

If your cataracts are in the early stages, your optometrist might recommend eyeglasses with a strong lens. However, such treatments are only temporary. To treat cataracts, your optometrist will recommend removal and refer you to an ophthalmologist.

During a cataract treatment procedure, the eye doctor can remove the clouded natural intraocular lenses and replace them with an artificial one. The ophthalmologist will then use ultrasound technology to fragment and remove the clouded lens. This cataract treatment procedure is known as phacoemulsification.

After removing the blurred natural lenses, the ophthalmologist will replace them with artificial ones. There will be follow-up visits after procedure to monitor the outcome.

Optometrist in Your Area

Are you in need of cataracts treatment in Vaughan, ON? You can consider visiting our clinic for cataract evaluations. Cataracts may cause vision loss if left untreated. Therefore, you should consider visiting an eye doctor once you experience initial symptoms such as vision blurriness. Call us now to book an appointment with our optometrist near you.