What is the difference between “cataract” and “glaucoma”?
Both of these can affect your vision, however one is much more significant than the other. A cataract is when the lens inside the eye (behind the pupil) becomes cloudy. This can be due to advancing age, systemic disease, excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, or a complication from medications. The cloudy lens prevents the light from being properly focused on the retina and the vision gets blurry. Correction of this is the surgical removal of the cataract and the insertion of an implant lens. Glaucoma is a condition where the nerve in the back of the eye (also called the “optic nerve”) is slowly destroyed. Nerves on the outer portion of the eye are affected first, thus causing the patient to lose their side, or “peripheral” vision. There are many causes of this, but most involve some mechanism which raises the fluid pressure of the eye. Vision loss from glaucoma is PERMANENT. Treatment involves some method to lower the pressure within the eye. This can be done with pharmaceutica
