August is CATARACT AWARENESS MONTH!
If you are over 60 years old and feel that your vision is changing, contact us for a cataract evaluation!
More than 22 million Americans have cataracts. They are the leading cause of blindness in the world. They can start in one eye first or can develop in both eyes around the same time. Cataracts do not hurt and they grow as time progresses. This growth is usually caused by our normal aging process. Other factors may include exposure to sunlight (UV rays), trauma, certain medications, inflammation, or family history/genetics. In its early stages, a cataract is small and usually does not affect your vision noticeably. The cataract will continue to grow and the symptoms begin to affect your vision in various ways.
These symptoms can include:
- Fading of colors or dimness of colors
- Blurry or cloudy vision
- Frequent changes in eyeglass prescriptions
- Trouble reading small print
- Difficulty driving (especially at night)
- Glare and halos around lights
- Distortion of vision in one eye more than the other
As mentioned above, the cataract continues to grow until these symptoms start to more substantially affect your daily activities and your life. Patients usually start feeling uncomfortable driving at night, reading books and unfortunately start to realize they have to give up some of their favorite hobbies. The only way to get your life back to normal is to fix your vision by having cataract surgery.
There is GREAT NEWS at Slade & Baker Vision Center regarding cataract surgery. We are now offering ALL LASER cataract surgery with LenSx® Laser in our state-of-the-art surgical center! We were the first practice in the entire NATION to offer this advancement in technology. This means Dr. Stephen Slade has the longest experience with laser cataract surgery in the U.S.
Thanks to the research put in by surgeons such as Dr. Slade, and many huge medical advances, cataract surgery itself has become one of the safest and most successful procedures performed today. Cataract surgery is a much simpler procedure than it used to be and is completed a lot quicker than before as well. It is an outpatient procedure that causes minimal discomfort and does not have a long recovery period.
The goal of the cataract procedure is to dissect the old, cloudy lens into pieces, remove the pieces and insert an artificial lens that replaces the natural lens which has become cloudy. Traditionally, your cataract surgeon would do this procedure manually by making tiny incisions in the eye with a surgical instrument.
Thanks to technology, now our patients have the option of choosing a bladeless, laser cataract procedure to perform several of the most critical steps of cataract surgery!
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms or you know someone who is, call us at
and schedule a cataract evaluation with the Nation’s first laser cataract surgeon today!
