Cataract is a vision impairment that usually affects older people. It is a slowly developing disease that is usually characterized by a clouding in the eye. The common symptoms of this are blurry vision, glare, faded colors, double vision, unable to see clearly at night and frequent changes in prescription eye glasses. It can be resolved by surgery, wherein the cloudy eye lens is replaced with a new artificial lens.
There are basically two types of cataract — the cataract by location and the cataract by origin. The former is classified according to the location of the clouding of the lens.
– Cortical Cataract is what the disease is called if the cloudy opacity is found on the part of the lens called cortex. The cortex is the outer part of the lens. The cortical cataract often looks like a wheel spoke the points inward to the lens center. When a person has it the spoke-like opacities causes the light to scatter.
– Nuclear Sclerotic Cataract is the name given to the most common cataract. It is characterized by gradual yellow cloudiness and the hardening of the nucleus, which is the central part of the lens. The Nuclear Sclerotic Cataract is a gradual vision impairment disease. There are even cases where a person that has it experiences some kind of improvement to their vision. However, the improvement is just temporary because it will again deteriorate.
-Posterior Subcapsular Cataract or PSC is another type of cataract by location. In this the cloudiness or opacity develops at the part of the lens called the capsular bag. The symptoms of a Posterior Subcapsular Cataract are blurred near vision, halos around lights, glare, and light sensitivity. This type is common in diabetics and those who are in medication with steroids.
The other category of cataract is that by origin.
– Age related cataract is classified under this category. This type usually shows when a person is in his late 60s or 70s, but signs are already manifested as early as 40 years old.
– Congenital cataract is what it is called when the cataract was inborn. This does not give significant damage to the vision, but it should still be removed to prevent problems like strabismus or amblyopia.
– Secondary cataract usually develops after an eye surgery for glaucoma or retina surgery was done. Cataract that develops because of diabetes is also called secondary cataract.
– Traumatic cataract on the other hand is often the result of a direct injury to the eye.
– Radiation cataract is not very common but it can happen after the eye gets exposed to certain forms of radiation.
These are the types of cataract that may affect anybody.