When you have cataracts, it takes its toll on your vision. At first, cataracts may not show any symptoms, but as they develop, they make it more challenging to see.
Once your cataracts start affecting your quality of life, cataract surgeons recommend having cataract surgery. Cataract surgery is the only way to treat cataracts effectively.
Other methods will temporarily improve your vision, but cataract surgery addresses vision loss and corrects it. The result? You have the natural lens of your eye removed, eradicating your cataract and allowing you to see clearly once more.
When you have trouble seeing, it can affect all areas of your life, including your favorite recreational activities. If you enjoy golf, having difficulty seeing due to cataracts may make your favorite game impossible.
But after cataract surgery, you can improve your game by achieving your best vision, depending on the IOL you choose before cataract surgery. Keep reading to learn more about cataracts and why cataract surgery can help improve your golf game!
What are Cataracts?
Cataracts occur when the natural lens becomes cloudy. Before cataracts, the natural lens is transparent and see-through.
Usually, cataracts develop due to aging when proteins in the lens start clumping together in the middle, impairing your vision. When these proteins clump together, the lens becomes more opaque and lets less light through.
Once you’re in your forties, your risk of developing cataracts increases. Most people associate cataracts with old age and may not realize they have them at first.
Cataracts can take years or even decades to develop. You may not even recognize cataracts without visible symptoms impacting your vision.
However, as they continue developing, they cause many visual symptoms, including:
- Blurry vision
- Poor night vision
- Glare and halos
- Light sensitivity
- Decreased color contrast
- Seeing colors as muddy or brown
- Experiencing double vision in only one eye
If your cataracts make it hard to perform daily tasks or enjoy your favorite hobbies like golf, it’s time to consider having cataract surgery. Seeing a golf ball becomes almost impossible when dealing with the visual impairment that cataracts cause.
How Does Cataract Surgery Work?
Cataract surgery involves removing your natural lens and the cataract formed on it. After removing the natural lens and breaking it into smaller pieces, you’ll have it replaced with an artificial lens.
The artificial lens, known as an intraocular lens (IOL), takes over the job that the once transparent natural lens can no longer accomplish. With the IOL, you can see clearly again.
There are several varieties of IOLs available, including many designed to correct presbyopia. Presbyopia, like cataracts, is another age-related eye condition.
It occurs when the natural lens loses flexibility, making it harder to see objects right before you. Many patients resort to using reading glasses to combat the frustrating effects of presbyopia.
Do you hold menus further away from you to see? Do you constantly forget where you left your readers?
An IOL that corrects presbyopia can help make these problems a thing of the past. Many IOLs offer the option to correct presbyopia during cataract surgery, making it easier to reduce dependence on glasses.
Cataract surgery is an outpatient procedure with few risks that allows you to return home the same day. You don’t have to worry about a lengthy recovery and can return to the things you love the day after cataract surgery.
The best part? You can finally see clearly again without cataracts impairing your vision!
How Can Cataract Surgery Improve My Vision?
Cataract surgery improves your vision by removing your cataracts, allowing you to see clearly and without impairment. Unlike other age-related eye conditions, you can regain any vision loss due to cataracts by undergoing cataract surgery.
But you may not realize that cataract surgery can do more than restore your vision. It can also help you see better than before having cataracts!
How is this possible? It all depends on the IOL you and your cataract surgeon choose before cataract surgery. IOLs come in different varieties.
The standard option is a monofocal lens, which can help you see up close or far away, but you need glasses to see other distances. But other IOLs can improve your vision and reduce your dependence on glasses.
If you’re a patient with astigmatism, there’s even an IOL called a toric lens to address the refractive error. But for the best that St. Luke’s Cataract & Laser Institute offers (and will take your golf game to the next level), the best option worth considering is Lifestyle Vision.
What is Lifestyle Vision?
Lifestyle Vision is the premier cataract package at St. Luke’s Cataract & Laser Institute. Whether you only find yourself on the golf course once a week or you’re hitting balls daily, Lifestyle Vision will change your life. This package includes the Clareon PanOptix Trifocal lens, an advanced IOL that uses ENLIGHTEN Optical Technology.
The PanOptix trifocal IOL is designed to help you see at three different distances: up close, far away, and at a middle distance. ENLIGHTEN allows the IOL to help you see well at all three distances without sacrificing your ability to see up close or far away for good intermediate vision.
The Clareon PanOptix trifocal lens will help you see well no matter what you’re doing and can reduce and even eliminate the need for glasses or contacts. For golfers, that means improving their golf game and handicap.
By allowing you to see clearly both at a distance and up close, you can get the best view to line up your shot when you tee off and when you’re on the green making a precision putt. No matter where you are on the course, you’ll be able to see what you’re doing.
You may even be able to do away with your pesky glasses that can get in the way when you’re trying to focus on your shot. Clearer vision is the ultimate advantage when you’re golfing, after all.
Cataract surgery can improve your vision and nearly every area of your life. To get the best, it’s no question that Lifestyle Vision is the way to go, especially if you’re serious about stepping up your golf game.
Are you ready to say goodbye to missing shots because cataracts got in the way? Schedule an appointment with one of the cataract specialists at St. Luke’s Cataract & Laser Institute in Lake Sumter Landing, FL, today!
