Cataract Awareness Month - Cataracts and Cataract Surgery

August is Cataract Awareness Month. According to the World Health Organization, cataracts are the number one cause of blindness worldwide, in addition to being the leading cause of low vision in people 55 years and older. In fact, over half of people 65 and older are affected by varying degrees of cataract development. That’s over half!

Image: causes of blindness worldwide as a percentage of total blindness; source

So what is a “cataract”?

A ‘cataract’ is the clouding that occurs when proteins clump together on the lens, the part of your eye behind the iris that needs to remain clear so images can be properly focused on the retina. To visualize (<--bad pun) all of this terminology, here is a video to help out:

"Cataract Formation in the Eye and Cataract Surgery"

Cataract... surgery?

Whoa whoa whoa: that video explained the parts of the eye affected by cataracts and how a cataract affects your vision, but did it also say... surgery? Indeed it did, and that’s because cataract surgery is the most common vision correction procedure in the United States due to its extremely high success rate. Phew, not so scary anymore, right? And in the hands of one of our skilled eye surgeons, you can rest assured you are benefitting from the best technology available. Remember when the video explained how your surgeon will replace part of your cloudy lens with an implant? That implant is technically called an “intraocular lens,” or an “IOL,” and at South Texas Eye Institute, we offer multiple kinds of IOLs to suit your specific needs.

To find out more about cataracts, especially symptoms, warning signs, and when it is appropriate to have surgery, schedule a vision consultation with us today.