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When you have been diagnosed with a cataract by your GP or optometrist, you will be referred to Moorfields or your closest eye clinic where your eye will be examined to confirm the diagnosis.
At the clinic, patients are usually seen by a nurse who will check your vision and take a medical history to find out about your symptoms and any other medical problems you may have. The nurse will then usually put some dilating drops in your eyes to make the pupils larger.
This enables the ophthalmologist (eye doctor) to look at the cataract and examine the retina and the optic nerve (back of the eye) and confirm the visual problems are caused by the cataract and not another problem.
The effect of these drops will wear off after a few hours, however, your near vision will be blurred initially. For this reason, you should not drive to appointments and you must be careful that you do not miss your footing, for instance walking down steps.
Once you have been diagnosed and your cataract progresses to the point that it is interfering with daily activities and normal lifestyle, you will be given an appointment for an operation to remove the cataract.
Surgery is the only effective way of removing the cloudy lens. It cannot, for instance, be removed by laser, change in diet, or pills. In some parts of the world it is possible to buy pills to help prevent cataracts, but there is no proof that these work.
