Your Future is Literally Looking Brighter

New surgical techniques are fixing cataracts more quickly and easily

Cataracts, a clouding of the eyes natural lenses, are an inevitable part of aging. As you reach your 60s or 70s, vision tends to become blurry, colors less vivid and glare from sunlight and headlights more bothersome. But today, new surgical techniques are correcting cataracts quickly and easily for 2.5 million Americans each year—making it the most common of all surgeries for people over age 65.

Doctors have removed blurred lenses for more than a century, but the procedure used to require wearing thick eyeglasses (and later, contact lenses) afterward. Now, doctors can insert a flexible, foldable “intraocular” lens through tiny incisions that don’t even require stitches. Surgery is done on a same-day basis with local anesthesia and takes less than an hour. You’ll see more clearly in just a few days and may even see improvement the same day.

Even though most cataracts are the result of aging, in rare instances they can be present at birth or caused by trauma. Even these types usually can be repaired surgically, says Andrew Bausch, M.D., ophthalmologist at Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “Cataract surgery is almost always successful, with about 15 percent of people reporting some sensitivity to light afterward,” he says. “It may be less effective for people who have another eye disease, such as macular degeneration, glaucoma or diabetic retinopathy. But even they have some improvement in vision.”

Lens implants also can be customized to treat other eye problems, Bausch says. For example, one type of procedure eliminates the need for reading glasses, and another corrects astigmatism. Soon, people too farsighted or nearsighted for laser surgery will be able to have implants eliminating the need for cataract surgery later in life.

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