Increasing clouding of the eye lens makes daily activities worse due to the cataract. The eye can see less clearly and colors fade. If you suffer from a deteriorating eye, have yourself examined. Gray cataracts can be treated effectively, but green cataracts must be recognized in a timely manner before treatment. How does a cataract develop and when should you undergo cataract surgery?

Treating cataracts

• Two types of cataracts
• What is cataract?
• What is green cataract?
• Need well-functioning lens
• Symptoms
• Need for treatment
• The operation

Two types of cataracts

When there is a cataract, the aging patient’s vision is significantly reduced. Two types of cataracts are distinguished, namely:

• cataract;
• glaucoma.

It often concerns cataracts and the reduced vision can easily be treated with a simple surgical procedure. Green cataracts can be treated effectively with medication and eye drops if diagnosed in time. How do you recognize cataracts and how is it treated?

What is cataract?

In everyone, just behind the pupil, the dark opening in the iris, there is a lens that transmits light well. With cataracts, vision gradually decreases because the lens becomes cloudy. A normal lens has a protein-water solution, where over time the proteins clump together until a gray haze is formed in the lens. This is recognizable as a gray halo in the dark iris opening. Its surface area increases over time, making everything appear more blurry and colors change. Usually, cataracts affect everyone, but some people suffer from it more than others.

What is green cataract?

The condition in which pressure in the eyeball gradually increases and thus affects vision is called cataract or glaucoma. This condition can lead to complete blindness and must be treated in a timely manner. It often occurs after 40 years and has a progressive development. Due to the increasing fluid pressure in the eyeball, the optic nerve is compressed and damaged. Eye drops can reduce the amount of pressure in the first chamber of the eye and beta blockers can reduce the production of eye fluid. This can be of great help to the patient if the condition is recognized early. In a later stage, green cataracts lead to blindness.

Need well-functioning lens

The eye registers everything that happens around you. To this end, the lens, in combination with the cornea, focuses the light so that it is projected onto the retina. The captured information is then forwarded to the brain for recognition. This way you can see what is happening. If the lens becomes cloudy, the light beam is partly blocked and disrupted. The amount of light that reaches the retina decreases and some of the light rays may end up in the wrong place. As a result, the sharpness of what you see decreases and colors become less bright.

Symptoms

In the aging person, cataract develops after the person reaches 40 years of age. Some people suddenly notice that the lens of the eye starts to become cloudy. The condition often occurs later in life. It depends on where the clouding is concentrated whether complaints occur sooner or later. If the clouding occurs in the middle of the lens, complaints usually arise quickly. Certainly with sharp backlight you will have dark spots in the glare. Distance vision becomes less, but reading may actually improve. In addition, the following may occur:

• difference in strength of the two eyes;
• blurred or double vision (diplopia);
• inability or reduced ability to recognize colors (color blindness);
• strong changes in the strength of glasses.

The process of clouding can occur gradually, but can also have a rapid final spurt. Cataracts develop until you can only distinguish between light and dark. In that phase there is a mature cataract.

Need for treatment

Cataracts have many phases of occurrence and not every phase needs to be treated immediately. In case of cataract complaints, an eye check should be carried out regularly, so that it is clear at what stage the cataract development is. Cataract treatment will not be necessary for people who can still perform normal housework and hobbies. If the symptoms get worse, at a certain point daily activities become difficult to perform. At such an advanced stage, cataract surgery must be performed, during which the lens is replaced. Before your operation, you should apply drops to your eyes 3 days in advance.

The operation

Before the operation, drops are applied to the pupil to enlarge it. A local anesthetic is then applied. The clouded lens is removed through a small incision in the cornea, after which a clean lens with the correct strength properties is replaced. In addition, complications for the eye are small, also because cataract surgery is frequently performed. After the operation, the eye must be protected with an eye mask so that you do not touch it. After a few days you can see normally again at full strength. You should also not do any strenuous exercise in the first 2 weeks and you should not swim for the first month to ensure optimal recovery of the eye.

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