There are many types of cataracts. This article focuses on age-related Cataract types and treatments. Other cataract types include:
- Pediatric cataracts. Pediatric cataracts affect babies and children. Babies may be born with cataracts (congenital), or the cataracts may form sometime after birth. Pediatric cataracts typically run in families, but they can also happen due to eye injuries or other eye conditions. Babies and children with pediatric cataracts need prompt treatment to prevent problems like amblyopia (lazy eye).
- Traumatic cataracts. These cataracts form when something injures your eye. Treatment for this type is more complicated because structures around the lens may also need repair.
- Secondary cataracts. These are cloudy patches that form on your lens capsule, or the membrane that covers your lens. Another term for this condition is posterior capsular opacification. It’s a common but easily treatable complication of cataract surgery.
Types of age-related cataracts
There are several types of age-related cataracts. Their names refer to their location in your lens. To understand these Cataract types and treatments, it helps to learn a bit about the anatomy of your lens.
Your lens is made up of a few layers. You can think of them like the layers of an apple:
- The nucleus is in the center of your lens. It’s like the core of the apple.
- The cortex is the layer that surrounds the nucleus. It’s like the fruit you eat that surrounds the core.
- The lens capsule is the thin membrane covering the cortex. It’s technically not part of the lens itself, but is instead like a close-fitting skin that covers and protects the lens. The lens capsule is a bit like the apple skin.
Eye care providers classify cataracts based on where they form in your lens. Often, people have more than one type at the same time. That’s because it’s common for cloudy patches to form in multiple areas of your lens. The three most common Cataract types and treatments those related to age are:
- Nuclear sclerotic cataract, which forms in the nucleus.
- Cortical cataract, which forms in the cortex.
- Posterior subcapsular cataract, which forms in the posterior cortex. “Posterior” in this context means the “back” of your lens. This is the part that’s closest to your retina (which is behind your lens). “Subcapsular” means the cataract forms at the outer edge of the cortex, just beneath the lens capsule.
Cataract types and treatments – At what age do cataracts usually start?
The proteins in your eye’s lens start to break down around age 40. But you typically won’t notice symptoms until age 60 or later. Certain medical conditions, like diabetes, may cause you to have symptoms sooner.
How common are cataracts?
Cataracts are very common in the globally. According to the World Health Organization, about 17% of people around the world have cataracts that cause problems with their vision, and that is why Cataract types and treatments become more important everyday. However, the prevalence varies widely by country and region. There’s a higher prevalence in middle-income and low-income nations where people often have more risk factors and limited access to cataract treatment.
In the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 people age 65 to 74 have cataracts that affect their vision. More than 50% of people over age 80 either have cataracts or had surgery to remove them.
Symptoms and Causes
How to recognize signs of Cataract types and treatments and when to get help.
What are the symptoms of cataracts?
Cataract symptoms include:
- Vision that’s cloudy, blurry, foggy or filmy.
- Changes in the way you see color (colors may look faded or not as vivid).
- Sensitivity to bright sunlight, headlights or lamps.
- Glare, including halos or streaks that form around lights.
- Difficulty seeing at night.
- Changes in your vision prescription, including near-sightedness that gets worse.
- Needing a brighter light to read.
- Double vision.
Are cataracts painful?
Cataracts don’t usually hurt. But they can cause discomfort by making your eyes more sensitive to light. Cataract types and treatments are explained here:
What causes cataracts?
The main cause of cataracts is the gradual breakdown of proteins in your lens.
However, certain genetic and environmental factors can raise your risk of developing cataracts or developing them at a younger age compared with others.
What are the risk factors for cataracts?
To know more about Cataract types and treatments, Risk factors for cataract formation fall into three main groups: environmental, medical and genetic.
Environmental risk factors
Environmental risk factors are those that you encounter in the world around you. They’re sometimes toxic substances that you breathe in or ingest. Environmental factors are harmful because they increase the amount of free radicals in your body. These are unstable molecules that damage healthy cells. Free radicals, by harming the cells in your eye’s lens, can lead to cataract formation.
Environmental risk factors for Cataract types and treatments include:
- Air pollution.
- Tobacco smoke.
- Alcohol.
- Industrial chemicals.
- Pesticides.
- Long-term exposure to UV light from the sun.
- History of radiation therapy to the upper part of your body.
Limiting your environmental exposures may slow down cataract formation. Researchers continue to look into the exact role that preventive measures play in Cataract types and treatments.
Medical risk factors
Medical risk factors that can raise your risk for cataracts include:
- Having diabetes or high blood sugar.
- Having certain eye surgeries, like glaucoma.
- Using corticosteroids to treat some medical conditions (like rheumatoid arthritis).
- Having certain eye diseases, like retina pigmentosa or uveitis.
Genetic risk factors
A family history of cataracts raises your risk of developing them. Some genetic mutations lead to congenital cataracts (present at birth). When it comes to age-related cataracts, genetic mutations may make your lens more vulnerable to damage from environmental risk factors. Researchers continue to explore these connections.
So, while you can’t change your genetic risk, it helps to know your family history and share it with your provider.
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