The Three Most Common Types of Cataracts
Cataracts make the world look dull and hazy as the clear lens inside your eye becomes cloudy. Although there are several kinds of cataracts, some are more common than others.
What Are Cataracts?
Cataracts cloud and harden the lens located behind your iris and pupil. The lens, along with the cornea covering the iris and pupil, refract (bend) light as it enters your eyes. Refraction keeps light focused directly on the light-sensitive retina, ensuring good vision.
Light doesn't pass through the lens normally when cataracts are present, causing the following symptoms:
- Blurry Vision
- Double Vision
- Increasing Glare
- Trouble Driving at Night Due to Glare and Halos Around Lights
- Difficulty Seeing in Dim Light or Adjusting to Rapid Changes Between Light and Dark Environments (moving from a dark room to a light room)
- Needing More Light to Read or Do Close Work
- Sensitivity to Light
Nuclear Cataracts
Nuclear cataracts affect the center of the lens and are the most common type of cataract, according to All About Vision. These cataracts are often related to aging.
Other risk factors for nuclear cataracts include:
- Sunlight Exposure
- Smoking or Tobacco Use
- Heavy Drinking
- High Blood Pressure
- Diabetes
- Exposure to Radiation
- Using Corticosteroids for a Long Time
- Family History of Cataracts
Have you struggled to read fine print as you've gotten older? A nuclear cataract could temporarily improve your near vision, according to Mayo Clinic. Unfortunately, your vision will probably get worse as the lens becomes increasingly yellow or brown.
Cortical Cataracts
Cortical cataracts affect the outer edges of the lens, causing a spoke pattern of white spots or streaks around the lens. As the cataract worsens, the streaks reach the center of the lens. Cortical cataracts can cause issues with depth perception, in addition to many of the same symptoms and risk factors as nuclear cataracts.
Posterior Subcapsular Cataracts
Posterior subcapsular cataracts form in the back of the lens under the lens capsule. The lens capsule is a membrane that surrounds and stabilizes the lens. Posterior subcapsular cataracts may progress more quickly than other types of cataracts, but cause the same symptoms as other cataracts.
People who have retinitis pigmentosa (RP) may be more like to develop posterior subcapsular cataracts. According to an abstract published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science in 2017, the increased risk in RP patients might be related to inflammation. RP is a genetic eye disease that causes gradual loss of vision, using beginning with peripheral (side) vision.
How Are Cataracts Treated?
Ophthalmologists treat cataracts, regardless of their type, by removing the clouded lens and replacing it with a clear artificial lens called an intraocular lens implant (IOL). IOLs are made of silicone, acrylic, or other types of plastic and work similarly to natural lenses.
Several IOL options are available. The least expensive option involves choosing one lens power to provide either clear far or near vision. If you choose a lens that offers sharp distance vision, you'll need reading glasses to read and see objects close up.
Would you like to see clearly at any distance? Multifocal lenses that offer several lens powers provide good vision at any distance are a good option. Accommodative IOLs work with your eye muscles to offer sharp vision at close, mid-range and far distances. You can also choose to have one IOL set for distance vision and other other for near vision. In this case, the images from the eyes are combined to create one clear image.
Toric IOLs may be a good choice if you have astigmatism, a condition that causes blurry vision at all distances due to the irregular shape of the cornea.
Your ophthalmologist may recommend surgery if your cataracts significantly impair your ability to see, read, and drive. Cataract surgery offers a safe, effective way to improve your vision. In fact, 98% of people who have cataract surgery have no complications, according to the American Refractive Surgery Council.
Don't suffer unnecessarily with poor vision due to cataracts. Contact our office to discuss treatment options for your cataracts.
Sources:
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science: Risk Factors for Posterior Subcapsular Cataract in RP, June 2017.
https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2640620
American Refractive Surgery Council: Cataract Surgeries at a Glance
https://americanrefractivesurgerycouncil.org/cataract-surgery/
Mayo Clinic: Cataracts, 9/28/2023
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cataracts/symptoms-causes/syc-20353790
National Eye Institute: Cataracts, 12/10/2024
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/cataracts
All About Vision: What Are Nuclear Cataracts?, 9/2/2021
https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/eye-conditions-and-diseases/cataracts
