Cataracts: a normal part of aging, managed on your timeline
If you live long enough, you will develop cataracts — the gradual clouding of the eye's natural lens. That sounds ominous, but it shouldn't: cataracts progress slowly, surgery when it's finally needed is one of the safest and most successful procedures in all of medicine, and in the meantime there is a lot we can do to keep you seeing well.
How cataracts can affect you
Glare and halos — oncoming headlights at night become genuinely difficult
Colors dimming or yellowing; whites that no longer look white
Needing ever more light to read
Glasses prescriptions that change more often than they used to
A general haze that new glasses don't quite fix
The most important thing to know
A cataract diagnosis is not a surgery appointment. Most cataracts are monitored for years before surgery makes sense, and some never need it. The decision point isn't what we see in the exam chair — it's your life: when glare, dimness, or blur starts interfering with driving, reading, golf, or anything else that matters to you, that's when we talk seriously about surgery. Until then, updated glasses and glare strategies often keep you comfortable.
How we care for cataracts
Detection and honest counsel. We find cataracts early, explain what stage yours are at, and tell you plainly whether they explain your symptoms — or whether something else is going on.
Monitoring. Regular exams track progression, and we keep your prescription current so you see as well as your lenses allow.
When it's time: referral to a trusted surgeon. We refer to experienced local cataract surgeons and coordinate your care with them — including the conversation about lens implant options, which deserves an unhurried, unbiased explanation before you're in a surgical center.
Co-managed aftercare. Following surgery, your follow-up care can be provided here in our office, coordinated with your surgeon — closer to home, with the doctor who knows your eyes.
Cataract evaluations, monitoring, and post-surgical care are medical eye care, billed to your medical insurance (including Medicare) — details on our insurance page. And in keeping with how we practice: we have no financial stake in whether or where you have surgery, so our advice is only ever about your eyes.
Wondering if cataracts explain your symptoms?
Night-driving glare and gradually dimming vision have several possible causes, and sorting them out is exactly what a medical eye exam is for.