Let's take a few minutes and see if we can demystify cataracts. Simply put, cataracts are a discoloration of the lens we all have inside our eyes. This lens helps our eyes focus clearly up close when we are young, and it continues to grow throughout adulthood. As the lens grows, it begins to turn whitish-yellow and scatter the light that enters the eye.

Because light passing through the cataract-afflicted lens is scattered rather than focused, vision becomes hazy/misty or blurred. People with cataracts can have trouble with glare, especially when driving at night. They may also experience changes in their color vision or note that their vision seems dim; more than once, patients with cataracts have told me, “I need a bright light to see anything nowadays!”

Most cataracts progress very slowly over a few to several years. However, some types of cataracts can change over just a few months to a year. Everyone in their 40 and 50s will start to develop cataracts, and most people who have cataract surgery have it in their late 60s or early 70s.

Cataract surgery involves removing the lens with the cataract and replacing it with an artificial lens. Cataract surgery is not entirely risk-free, but if instructions are followed carefully, poor outcomes are few.