But over time, cataracts can make your vision blurry, hazy, or less colorful. You may have trouble reading or doing other everyday activities. The good news is that surgery can get rid of cataracts. Cataract surgery is safe and corrects vision problems caused by cataracts. Most cataracts are age-related — they happen because of normal changes in your eyes as you get older. But you can get cataracts for other reasons — for example, after an eye injury or after surgery for another eye problem like glaucoma.
You might not have any symptoms at first, when cataracts are mild. But as cataracts grow, they can cause changes in your vision. For example, you may notice that:. These symptoms can be a sign of other eye problems, too.
Be sure to talk to your eye doctor if you have any of these problems. Ask if there is anything you can do to lower your risk. Around age 40, the proteins in the lens of your eye start to break down and clump together. This clump makes a cloudy area on your lens — or a cataract. Over time, the cataract gets more severe and clouds more of the lens.
An eye doctor can check for cataracts as part of a dilated eye exam. The exam is simple and painless — your doctor will give you some eye drops to dilate widen your pupil and then check your eyes for cataracts and other eye problems. Surgery is the only way to get rid of a cataract, but you may not need to get surgery right away.
Home treatment. Early on, you may be able to make small changes to manage your cataracts. You can do things like:. New glasses or contacts. Do you ever get an urge to crunch on a piece of ice?
Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Symptoms of Cataracts. What Causes Cataracts? Types of Cataracts. Risk Factors of Cataracts. Diagnosing Cataracts. Treatment of Cataracts. Outlook of a Cataract.
Prevention of Cataracts. Read this next. Medically reviewed by University of Illinois. Can Diabetes Cause Cataracts? Medically reviewed by Marina Basina, M. Medically reviewed by Ann Marie Griff, O. Medically reviewed by Leela Raju, MD. What Is Nuclear Sclerosis? Age is the greatest risk factor for cataracts. Age-related cataracts may develop between 40 and 50 years old.
Where you live. Recent studies have shown that people who live in high altitudes are more at risk of developing cataracts. Too much sun exposure. People who spend more time in the sun may develop cataracts sooner than others.
The following are the most common symptoms of cataracts. However, each person may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include:. Often in the disease's early stages, you may not notice any changes in your vision.
Since cataracts tend to grow slowly, your eyesight will get worse slowly. Certain cataracts can also cause your close-up vision to get better for a short time.
But your eyesight is likely to get worse as the cataract grows. The symptoms of cataracts may look like other eye conditions. Talk with a healthcare provider for a diagnosis. Visual acuity test. The common eye chart test that measures vision ability at many distances. Pupil dilation. The pupil is widened with eye drops to allow a close-up exam of the eye's retina.
In addition, other tests may be done to help your eye care professional learn more about the health and structure of your eye. The symptoms of cataracts sometimes look like other conditions or medical problems.
Always see your healthcare provider for a diagnosis. In its early stages, loss of eyesight caused by a cataract may be helped with the use of different eyeglasses, a magnifying glass, or stronger lighting.
When these actions are no longer helpful, surgery is the only effective treatment available. A cataract only needs to be removed when loss of eyesight gets in the way of your everyday activities, such as driving, reading, or watching TV.
You and your eye healthcare provider can make that decision together. Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries. It is also one of the safest and most effective. Surgery involves swapping out the cloudy lens with a new lens. If you have cataracts in both eyes, they are usually not taken out at the same time.
Your eye healthcare provider will need to do the surgery on each eye separately.
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