Other causes include trauma, medications such as steroids, systemic diseases such as diabetes. Occasionally, babies are born with a cloudy lens or cataract. Reducing the amount of ultraviolet light exposure by wearing a wide-brim hat and sunglasses may reduce your risk for developing a cataract but once developed there is no cure except to have the cataract surgically removed. Outpatient surgical procedures can remove the cataract through a small incision. The time to have the surgical procedure is when your vision is bad enough that it interferes with your lifestyle.
Cataract surgery is a very successful operation.
One and a half million people have this procedure every year and most have a successful result. As with any surgical procedure, complications can occur during or after surgery and some are severe enough to limit vision. But in most cases, vision, as well as quality of life, improves. Your eye works a lot like a camera. Light rays focus through your lens on the retina, a layer of light sensitive cells at the back of the eye.