If you have a cataract it means the natural lens in your eye is cloudy. As the cataract grows: your sight becomes blurry; you may have double vision; you may find it hard to tell the difference between some colours, especially shades of blue; you may see ‘halo’ effects around lights, especially at night.

Cataracts are common. About a third of people aged over 65 have cataracts in one or both eyes. Getting older and exposure to bright sunlight are the main reasons people get cataracts. Having diabetes, smoking and drinking too much alcohol may also increase your risk of cataracts.

A cataract operation can help you see better and stop your poor sight interfering with your life. Not everyone with a cataract needs an operation. Doctors usually suggest the operation when your cataract interferes with your daily life rather than when your eyesight reaches a particular score on a sight test. In the past, people were advised that their cataract had to be ‘ripe’ (very bad) before it was worth having an operation.

This is because cataract surgery was a big operation that took a long time to recover from, and the artificial lenses used then were not very good. Now, with safer, quicker operations, cataracts are generally removed earlier, before they cause serious problems. And modern lenses are better.

Sometimes a cataract should be removed even if it does not cause problems with your sight. This is because there is another eye problem that needs treating and the cataract is in the way. Examples of other eye problems are diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. They are problems with the blood vessels in the eye. If you have cataracts in both eyes, it’s normal to do them one eye at a time, usually a couple of months or more apart. This is because the treated eye can be sore and needs to settle down for a while.

For greater Chicago Illinois and Southern Wisconsin eye care patients, the Eye Care Center of Lake County will be convenient with its located offices in Gurnee, Vernon Hills and Lake Villa Illinois. Patients seeking any aspect of general, medical, surgical, laser or optical eye care services will find the Ophthalmologists, Optometrists and staff of the Eye Care Center of Lake County to be friendly, professional and experienced.

The Eye Care Center of Lake County staff performs general eye examinations for eyeglasses and contact lenses, examinations for cataracts and cataract surgery, lens implants including near vision presbyopia correcting multifocal intraocular lenses (IOL) such as the Crystalens® Lens Implant, the ReZoom™ Lens Implant and the Acrysof® ReSTOR® Lens Implants, laser eye surgery for the Laser Vision Correction of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism, such as LASIK surgery, medical and laser treatment of glaucoma, medical, laser and surgical treatment of diabetic retinopathy as well treatment of age related macular degeneration (ARMD) including recent advances such as Avastin® and Lucentis® Injections.

In 2000 the Medical Management Services Group, L.L.C., a physician practice management company, introduced www.seewithlasik.com in order to provide eye care consumers with access to commercially unbiased patient education information in the area of vision surgery, including but not limited to laser eye surgery for the correction of nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.

SeeWithLasik.com is intended to offer eye care consumers information to be used in conjunction with examination and consultation provided by an eye care specialist, in order to help patients have a greater understanding of the condition and treatment options so that the patients can make informed choices. To that end, SeeWithLasik.com is intended to help patients identify practioners offering various services and treatments and an opportunity to learn about the experience, interests and credentials.