Learn About Cataracts With Our Redding Optometry Team

At Redding Eyecare Center, our Redding optometry team shares a simple belief: our patients want more than just quality treatment—they want to learn about their eye health so they can truly maximize their vision at any age and prevent common eye disorders from developing in the first place. That’s why we’re committed to providing both education and treatment of a variety of eye conditions, including a common one known as cataracts.

Understanding Cataracts: Causes and Risk Factors

Cataracts occur when the lens of the eye becomes cloudy, like a foggy window. Your lenses, which are normally translucent, sit directly behind your pupils. They help light bend into the eye correctly so it will focus on the retinas and allow you to see clearly.

Advancing age is the most common risk factor for cataracts (although certain types of congenital cataracts can be present in childhood). It’s thought that the protein and fibers inside the lens tissue changes structure as you get older, leading to the cloudiness. Additional risk factors for cataracts are thought to include

  • Smoking
  • Diabetes and other underlying health conditions
  • Excessive sunlight exposure
  • A history of eye injury or infection
  • Excessive exposure to high-energy blue light (from digital devices)

Signs and Symptoms of Cataracts

You likely won’t notice signs or symptoms of cataract when it first begins to form. As it gets bigger and more opaque, symptoms can develop including:

  • Blurry and cloudy vision
  • Faded appearance of colors
  • Poor vision at night
  • Increased sensitivity to glare and bright lights
  • What looks like a “halo” around bright lights
  • Double vision
  • The need to change prescription glasses, sunglasses, or contacts frequently

In the most advanced stages, cataracts may even be visible, appearing as an opaque discoloration inside the pupil.

Redding Eye Care Team’s Role in Cataract Management

We educate our patients about ways to reduce their risk of cataracts, which includes lifestyle strategies such as maintaining a healthy diet, quitting smoking (or never starting), wearing UV-protective eyewear in the sun, and managing underlying health conditions properly.

We also can screen for cataracts and diagnose them before symptoms show up. This allows us to monitor its progression closely and provide the most up-to-date prescriptions and low vision strategies to help you see.

The main treatment for cataracts—surgical removal and replacement of the damaged lens—is a relatively simple outpatient procedure done by an eye surgeon. Our optometry team can provide the essential pre and postoperative care techniques to make sure your surgery and recovery go smoothly.

Blurry Vision—Could it be Cataracts?

Call the Redding Eyecare Center at (530) 222-1233 to schedule an eye exam with an optometrist near you and get your cataracts screening today.