Your eye care professional may recommend delaying the surgery to remove your cataracts, even after they have diagnosed you. As frustrating as a wait might feel, good reasons for waiting to remove a cataract do exist. These reasons include the severity of your symptoms, your visual acuity, and the state of your particular cataract situation. Your health insurance also plays a role in this decision.
How Vision Professionals Decide When to Remove Cataracts
Your vision professional makes decisions about when to remove cataracts based on several factors. These begin with deciding if removing your cataracts is medically necessary, and if the symptoms of your eye issues interfere so much with your daily life that they have become a hindrance to your quality of life. People with very mild symptoms may not need cataract removal right away.
The criteria usually used to decide on the timing of cataract surgery are:
- The appearance of your cataract. Not all cataracts are created equal. While some may not be at the stage to actively endanger the future quality of your vision, others have hardened to the point of immediate removal.
- Your measured visual acuity. Every time your doctor has you read letters from a vision chart, they are measuring your visual acuity. If your cataracts interfere with your ability to see clearly, even with a current glasses prescription, you may need surgery.
- Your symptoms. Cataracts cause symptoms beyond poor eyesight. You may experience light sensitivity, cloudy or blurry vision, double vision, faded colors, poor night vision, halos around lights, or light sensitivity. Your vision prescription may change rapidly.
The Role of Health Insurance
Your insurance looks at the same criteria your eye care professional does when evaluating your need for cataract surgery. Should those factors not meet certain benchmarks the insurance utilizes to decide when a procedure is medically necessary, your coverage may not extend to surgery at this time. This would require you to pay out-of-pocket to have your cataracts removed.
The Answers to All Your Vision Health Questions Are at Valley Eyecare Center
Your vision care professionals at Valley Eyecare Center are eager to answer all your questions or ease your concerns! We want you to feel confident about your eye health. You can contact us online, or call (602) 955-2700 to make an appointment.
