The lens is a structure that's inside the eye.
It focuses light onto the retina
to allow for a clear image.
A normal lens should be clear like a windshield.
However, if you start to develop a cataract,
it starts becoming a little yellow or even brown.
When a cataract is forming,
the proteins of your lens are starting to degrade.
They change in consistency
and so they're no longer able to maintain the clarity.
Cataract can cause blurry vision or glare,
especially at night.
Most patients complain of difficulty driving at night
or severe decline in their vision with oncoming car headlights.
The most common cause for a cataract is age.
Over time light and UV exposure
cause the lens to become more cloudy.
In an early cataract,
most patients can improve their vision just with an update in their glasses
or contact lens prescription.
However, cataracts do get worse with age.
Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries that we do here.
In cataract surgery, we remove the lens
that has become cloudy
and we replace it with a synthetic lens that has a prescription in it.
The newest advancements in cataract surgery include
laser-assisted cataract surgery.
There's also a technology called intraoperative aberrometry or ORA.
This machine takes an extra measurement of your eye
during the cataract surgery,
which allows for more accurate measurement
of the lens that's being placed inside.
Other advancements include
design of the lens.
So, every year there's newer and newer lenses
that give you better visual outcomes.
Additionally, here, we can do cataract surgery
in combination with glaucoma surgery or with retina surgery.
Some patients who have glaucoma and are on a lot of drops,
they can actually lower their eye pressure
at the same time as cataract surgery.