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What is a Cataract?
A cataract is a clouding of the natural lens inside your eye. The natural lens sits behind the iris and pupil. It works much like the lens of a camera. It focuses incoming light onto the retina at the back of the eye, where an image is recorded.
The lens is made of mostly water and protein, similar to the substance of an egg white. If you’ve ever fried an egg, you’ve probably noticed that the egg white gradually becomes cloudy, then turns white. The same changes happen to the lens of the eye as cataracts form, and the cloudiness makes it more difficult to see clearly.
When a cataract is mild, many patients can see better by using stronger lighting and changing their glasses. At some point, the lens gets cloudy enough that more light and stronger glasses don’t help anymore.
People often describe their vision as hazy, dim, or foggy, and the decrease in vision can affect the ability to see well for activities such as reading and driving. This is generally when cataract surgery is considered, though sometimes cataract surgery is done for reasons other than vision.