The Causes, Symptoms and Diagnosis of Cataract

The Causes, Symptoms and Diagnosis of Cataract A cataract is when the lens inside your eye becomes either clouded or discolored. The symptoms of cataract is a decrease in vision. Patients usually come in saying that I have noticed either a gradual change in my vision or that things are more blurry and they are not sure if it’s because of a change in their prescription. Glare around headlights, and people even say things just look a little hazy, like I am looking through a clouded window or soapy window. What causes cataracts and how are they diagnosed? The causes of cataract can be genetic. About the same age your parents had cataract is about the age you will get it. The UV rays of the sun and even smoking can speed up the progress of cataracts. It does get worse as you get older. We diagnose cataracts by when you come in, we dilate you which means we make your pupils bigger so we can look inside the eye. And we put you in an instrument called the slit lamp. And we take a look at the lens inside your eye because it’s behind the iris, the colored part of your eye. If it looks discolored or hazy then we know that it’s a cataract. It’s important that you get dilated so that the doctor can see the more view of the lens. If you are not dilated and say it’s very dense, it is possible to see it. Instead of looking clear between the iris, you will see a discoloration or a cloudiness but that would be only the cataract occluded or make cloudy the center of the lens.