Cataracts Specialist

What are cataracts?

The lens in your eye, where cataracts form, lies behind the iris or colored portion of the eye. A healthy lens is clear and focuses light and image passing into your eye onto your retina, which then transforms the image into signals for the brain to interpret. As you age, tissues within the lens break down, clump together, and form cloudy areas, or cataracts, on the lens.

As a cataract develops, it diffuses and scatters the light interacting with the lens. This causes blurred vision that continues to deteriorate as the cataract grows and begins to block light completely. Cataract formation may be accelerated by UV light exposure, diabetes, certain medications, and trauma.

Will I need surgery?

The only effective treatment for cataracts is surgery. Because cataracts typically develop gradually, unless worsened by diabetes or another medical condition, some patients choose to put off surgery for a time.

Dr. Pallan uses exam findings to determine the best treatment course for her patients. She may recommend surgery as your best option, especially if cataracts interfere with your daily activities and overall quality of life.

What happens during surgery?

To restore your vision, Dr. Pallan removes the cloudy lens inside your eye and replaces it with an artificial intraocular lens which becomes a permanent part of your eye structure. There are different types of intraocular lenses available:

• Monofocal lenses enable you to see clearly at distances but typically you will need glasses for reading.
• Multifocal lenses act much like the bifocals found in prescription glasses and decrease your need for reading glasses.
• A toric lens can correct even significant astigmatism, an abnormal curvature of the eye that causes blurred vision.

Dr. Pallan offers SPECIALTY LENSES to meet your visual needs. She offers the most comprehensive lens implant available in the US-PAN OPTIX. It gives you the ability to see at distance, near, and intermediate levels.

During your exam, Dr. Pallan takes measurements to determine which lens implant is appropriate for you and makes recommendations based on her findings and your daily activities.

Dr. Pallan has performed thousands of successful cataract surgeries and is dedicated to the use of advanced technology when it provides safe and optimal results for her patients. She uses a femtosecond laser (FS laser) to perform some of the steps in your surgery. In a skilled surgeon’s hands, the FS laser provides the precision necessary to make the tiny incisions used in cataract surgery and also helps break up the cataract itself.

The surgery takes about 15-30 minutes but with preoperative and postoperative observation, you can expect to be at the surgery center for three hours. After surgery, you’ll use eyedrops for a month and wear a protective shield over the treated eye for two weeks.

If you have mild to moderate glaucoma and cataracts, a trabecular micro-bypass stent can be inserted at the time of surgery to better control your eye pressure long term. This may reduce or eliminate the need for glaucoma drops. Ask Dr. Pallan if you are a candidate for this adjunct procedure during cataract surgery.

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