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What is a Cataract?
A cataract is simply a clouding of the lens. It’s been described as “like looking through a dirty window.” Hazy areas develop and coalesce to eventually make the lens completely opaque. When this happens (mature cataract) the pupil is white instead of black and the individual is able to see light only.
A cataract is not, as many people believe, a skin growing over the eye. The affected lens is on the inside of the eye and located behind the pupil which normally appears as a small, black hole in the center of the colored part of the eye.
Normally, the lens is transparent and clear. But, because of various factors, such as age, disease or injury, the lens becomes cloudy, loses its transparency and light rays pass through it with difficulty. This, somewhat like the change in transparency of an egg white when it is boiled, can greatly affect an individual’s ability to see.
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Tags: age-related eye disease
