Problems and Solutions: Cataracts

Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, Queensland

Cataracts develop very slowly and if you have early cataracts, you are probably not aware of it. However, Dr. Thomas Eshun-Wilson can detect them early and would prefer to detect them early rather than late. Anything that interferes with transparency in the eye’s structures will impair your vision and cataracts are one of the world’s leading causes of blindness.

The Cataract Problem

Briefly, cataracts are a clouding-up of the eye’s lens. Please see How the Eyes Work for more details on the lens and its role in vision. In a healthy eye, the lens is 100 percent transparent so as to let light through to the retina. That full complement of light brings in all the image detail, the color, and the shading of light and dark, that is in the scene you are looking at.

When any piece of that full load of data is missing, your vision is missing some corresponding detail. Cataracts are small opacities that block a little of the incoming light and deprive the retina of a little bit of information. They scatter the light, preventing it from focusing on the retina. Over a few years, cataracts expand and become more numerous, blocking more light.

With moderate to severe cataracts, you will notice a loss of color perception, of sharp focus, and of light and dark differentiation.

The Cataract Solution

To restore your vision, the lens itself must be removed and replaced with an artificial lens, called an intraocular lens (IOL).

To read more, please visit our page on Cataracts, and to get a good mental image of cataracts, you can visit Patient Education and the animations linked from there.

We will be happy to arrange a consultation for you if could email or phone us at our Hervey Bay/Bundaberg rooms to arrange an appointment. We look forward to meeting you.