July 2022 - Armadale Eye Clinic

when to have cataract surgery

How to Know When to Have Cataract Surgery

July 28, 2022/0 Comments/in Cataract Surgery /by armadaleeye

Once diagnosed with a cataract, many people’s first question is the best timing of when to have cataract surgery. However, while your optometrist or cataract surgeon is able to give you some guidance on the factors you might want to consider, you yourself are the best placed to decide when to have cataract surgery. Everyone’s situation is a little different, but for the most part, no one else can decide on the optimal timing of cataract surgery but you.

Factors to Consider for When to Have Cataract Surgery

So, you’ve just been told you have a cataract. Perhaps you had made an eye test appointment with your optometrist just as a matter of routine, or perhaps you were beginning to notice some deterioration in your vision. The diagnosis of a cataract can come as a surprise to some and is not an uncommon scenario as early cataracts typically don’t present with any noticeable symptoms.

Once diagnosing your cataracts, your optometrist or GP may have a discussion with you about when to have cataract surgery or may refer you straight to a cataract surgeon for that chat. Either way, here are some factors you may want to think about when considering cataract surgery.

Are your cataract symptoms bothering you?

The symptoms of a cataract can be varied depending on the location, type, and stage of your cataracts.

However, in addition to this, not everyone is bothered by the same visual symptoms, which is why you’re the only one who can answer this question.

For example, one person who enjoys birdwatching or stargazing will be much more impacted by a decline in their clarity of sight compared to someone who spends most of their time swimming or looking at a computer.

A truck driver who does long overnight drives may be particularly affected by the glare from their cataract, even if their visual acuity remains quite good.

If you’ve been diagnosed with cataracts but feel entirely unimpeded in your usual daily activities, in most cases, it is a better idea to postpone any cataract surgery until your cataracts become more visually significant.

Do you meet the vision requirements for holding a driver’s licence?

In Australia, the visual acuity requirement to hold a private vehicle licence is 6/12 on the letter chart with your two eyes open together. This vision standard can be achieved with your glasses or contact lenses if necessary. As your cataracts progress, you may find that your vision no longer meets this standard even after updating your glasses or contacts. At this point, your optometrist or cataract surgeon will most likely recommend you undergo cataract surgery, even if you personally feel comfortable with driving. Conversely, your visual acuity may be well within the requirements for licensing yet you feel unsafe when driving, possibly more so at night. If this is the case, you may wish to have cataract surgery done sooner rather than later.

Can you manage your cataracts with other solutions in the meantime?

In the earlier days of a developing cataract, you may find some changes to your sight that can easily be worked around. For example, it is not uncommon to find your ability to read print becomes more difficult if the lighting is poor. The simple solution to this is to bring your reading material to the window during the day or to consider the task or focal lighting wherever else you like to read.

Some cataracts can cause your spectacle or contact lens prescription to change. This prescription shift may make you more long-sighted, more short-sighted, or even alter your astigmatism. If simply updating your prescription restores your sight to a clarity you’re satisfied with, this is a viable alternative to cataract surgery. However, as the cataract continues to grow, eventually you may find that changing your glasses can no longer improve your sight to an adequate level. As cataracts can also cause rapid shifts to your script, it may not be financially practical to keep up with the cost of continually updating your glasses. At this point, cataract surgery may be the better solution.

Do you have any other financial, health, or other considerations to take into account?

The recovery period after cataract surgery is typically uneventful, and many people are able to resume their normal activities as early as within the week of their operation. However, if you have a holiday trip planned, you probably don’t want to have cataract surgery in the week just before you leave. Similarly, those with multiple medical conditions that need attention may want to prioritise the more severe or debilitating health issues before sorting out their cataracts with their cataract surgeon.

There are two avenues for cataract surgery in Australia – the public hospital system or a private cataract surgeon. Both approaches can provide quality cataract surgery, but each does have its own benefits and disadvantages. Cataract surgery is free through the public health system; however, the wait list can exceed 12 months in some hospitals. On the other hand, being seen by a private cataract surgeon can be as soon as a couple of weeks or even faster, but will cost you up to thousands of dollars, depending on your level of private health insurance.

If you have concerns about cataracts, speak to your optometrist or eye specialist.

Note: Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding, you should seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner.

References

Medical standards for licensing.

https://austroads.com.au/publications/assessing-fitness-to-drive/ap-g56/vision-and-eye-disorders/medical-standards-for-licensing-11#:~:text=However%2C%20a%20driver%20licence%20will,6%2F18%20in%20either%20eye.

When is the right time to have cataract surgery?

https://www.aao.org/newsroom/news-releases/detail/when-is-right-time-to-have-cataract-surgery

signs of cataract melbourne cataract surgery melbourne

Signs Of Cataract — When Is It Time For Cataract Surgery?

July 15, 2022/0 Comments/in Cataract Surgery /by armadaleeye

A common question often asked by older patients attending an eyecare appointment is how to tell they’re developing cataracts. Because cataracts are typically considered a normal part of ageing, if you have any close friends or family over the age of 60, it’s most likely that you know someone developing cataracts or who has already gone through cataract surgery. Keep reading to find out what you should know about the signs of a cataract.

What is a Cataract?

A cataract refers to any haze or opacity of the crystalline lens inside the eye. A young, healthy lens is clear and transparent, allowing light to pass through freely to form sharp vision. There are many underlying causes of cataracts, including some systemic diseases, eye injuries, and certain medications. However, the most common cause of a cataract is older age.

As we get older, age-related changes to the body result in the lens fibres losing their transparent arrangement. The lens becomes cloudy, hazy, or can develop discrete dense opacities. It’s the location and density of the opacity or haze that can affect what signs of the cataract you might notice.

Signs of a Cataract

In the early stages of developing cataracts, many people are entirely unaware of any changes to their sight. As the signs of a cataract tend to progress quite slowly, it’s often not until a person undergoes cataract surgery that they realise how much their sight had been impacted.

Here are some of the signs of a cataract that might alert you of needing cataract surgery in the next several years.

Deteriorating clarity of sight

As the fibres of the crystalline lens slowly lose their optically transparent arrangement, incoming light is unable to be transmitted as easily through the eye. The result is a decline in the sharpness, or acuity, of your vision. Different people may describe the quality of their vision differently. Some might describe it as blurry, while others may be more likely to use the words hazy or foggy, or filmy. Some people may feel like they’re looking through a dirty window or smudged glasses that can’t be cleaned. In some cases, updating your glasses or contact lenses can help to restore sharp sight, but eventually, vision through a cataract typically reaches a point that can’t be improved with glasses. At this point, many people consider cataract surgery.

Frequently changing prescriptions

It’s not unusual for a spectacle or contact lens script to shift slightly every few years or so. However, developing cataracts can cause your script to change more rapidly than normal, and to a larger degree. Some people may find their new glasses or contact lens script becoming blurry even within 6 months. A shift to a prescription due to cataracts can cause either more long-sightedness (hyperopia) or short-sightedness (myopia). It can even affect your astigmatism. As mentioned earlier, updating your glasses or contacts may be sufficient to improve your sight to a level you’re happy with. However, if your prescription is altering significantly every 12 months, it can become quite costly to keep up with these changes. It may be more worthwhile to undergo cataract surgery if this is the case.

Increasing difficulty with low lighting conditions

The effect of cataracts on your contrast sensitivity is often what people notice early on. However, not many are aware that these changes are a result of developing cataracts. Contrast sensitivity refers to your ability to pick out details of an object against a similarly shaded background. For example, reading grey text against a black background. As your cataracts progress, you may find that your ability to read print in a dimly lit environment such as a restaurant is not as good as it used to be. Another example is feeling less confident when driving at night or in low visibility road conditions such as heavy rain.

Increasing discomfort with glare

Glare affects a lot of people, and it’s not always due to cataracts. However, certain types of cataracts, particularly dense opacities, can scatter light entering the eye, which we perceive as glare. Glare might be just slightly uncomfortable, or it can be debilitating. You might find oncoming car headlights when driving at night time to be particularly bright and uncomfortable. Backlit digital devices such as tablets, phones, and computer screens may also cause some discomfort if the screen brightness is too high. While adjusting the brightness of your digital devices is easy, it’s not as simple when it comes to street lights and car headlights. If glare from cataracts is a particular concern, cataract surgery is the most definitive way of addressing this.

Shifts in colour perception

This is possibly the most difficult sign of a cataract to notice unless you’re particularly attuned to your colour vision. One type of age-related cataract known as nuclear sclerosis causes a brown-yellow haze in the centre (nucleus) of the lens. This discolouration affects which wavelengths of light can pass through the lens, which can alter your perception of colour. Many people coming out of cataract surgery often comment on how vibrant colours appear after the cataracts are removed.

It’s important to note that it’s extremely rare for a cataract to cause any pain, redness, or inflammation of the eye. This only occurs if the cataract is so hyper-advanced that it ruptures and causes inflammation.

Is It Time for Cataract Surgery?

In discussion with your eye care professional, you yourself are best placed to decide whether it’s time for cataract surgery. In most cases, this is based on how much your deteriorating vision is impacting your daily activities, like reading and driving.

Call us on (03) 9070 5753 today.

Note: Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Before proceeding, you should seek a second opinion from an appropriately qualified health practitioner.

References

Cataracts.
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/cataracts#symptoms

Cataracts.
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/cataracts