Cataract

The lens of the eye becomes cloudy, so your vision gradually gets less sharp.

In short

In cataract the clear lens in your eye slowly becomes cloudy, like looking through frosted glass.
You gradually see more blurred, are more bothered by bright light and colours look duller.
Cataract is part of ageing. Over 70, almost everyone has it to some degree.
There are no drops for cataract. Treatment is a short operation replacing the lens with an artificial one.
You help decide when: it depends on how much it bothers you.

A cloudy lens visible as a white haze in the pupil — Cataract: the cloudy lens is visible as a white haze in the pupil Rakesh Ahuja, MD, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Symptoms

Gradually more blurred vision, even with good glasses
More glare from bright light: headlights, sun on a wet road
Colours look duller or more yellow
Glasses prescription changing faster than usual
Sometimes double vision with one eye

How it develops

Proteins in the lens clump together over the years, making it cloudy. Ageing is by far the main cause. Smoking, a lot of unprotected sunlight, diabetes, long-term prednisone use and a blow to the eye speed it up.

Treatment

No drops or medicines prevent or reverse cataract.
At first, new glasses often help for a while.
Treatment is an operation replacing the cloudy lens with an artificial lens, usually under local anaesthetic in about fifteen minutes.
The timing depends on how much it bothers you in daily life, not on how cloudy the lens is.

When to get help the same day

Contact your GP or the out-of-hours GP service (huisartsenpost) straight away if you have:

Suddenly much worse vision within hours or days
A curtain or shadow over part of your vision
Suddenly many new spots or flashes of light
Severe pain with nausea and halos around lights
A red, painful or worse-seeing eye shortly after surgery

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This page is a short summary and does not replace a consultation. Want to know how the eye works? See The eye.