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Having a cataract is a bit like having a dirty windscreen on a car. It can make the view cloudy or foggy or sometimes blurry.
It can also cause glare from bright lights, sunshine, and on-coming headlights while driving. When these problems make your normal daily activities difficult, it is time consider the cataract operation.
Cataracts do not permanently impair your vision and you will not go blind from a cataract. An operation will restore your sight. Most forms of cataract develop in adult life, and usually occur as we get older.
Cataracts can be caused by injury, for instance, cuts, blows or burns to the eye which cause damage to the lens inside. Cataracts are more common in people with other diseases such as diabetes. Babies can be born with cataracts and these are known as congenital cataracts.
Inside the eye, behind the iris (the coloured part of the eye) is a lens. In the normal eye, the lens is clear and transparent, and helps to focus light rays on to the retina, the tissue at the back of the eye. When a cataract develops, the lens becomes cloudy and prevents the light rays passing into the retina. The picture that the retina receives becomes dull and fuzzy. Cataracts usually form slowly and people experience a gradual blurring of vision.
