Why Can't You Have Cataract Surgery As Soon As They Begin To Form??!
Question: Why is it the doctor tells you that you have the beginning stages of cataracts but they have to be "Ripe" before they can remove them. Why do we have to be almost blind before they will do the corrective surgery?
Mine might be in the beginning stage but my eyes are blury even with my glasses on. Why won't the correct the problem now? And just what does "Ripe for Surgery" Mean?
Please help answer this. I would not mind paying to have my vision corrected now but they say you cannot do that either. Do you have to wait for your Insurace to pay?
Answers: Why is it the doctor tells you that you have the beginning stages of cataracts but they have to be "Ripe" before they can remove them. Why do we have to be almost blind before they will do the corrective surgery?
Mine might be in the beginning stage but my eyes are blury even with my glasses on. Why won't the correct the problem now? And just what does "Ripe for Surgery" Mean?
Please help answer this. I would not mind paying to have my vision corrected now but they say you cannot do that either. Do you have to wait for your Insurace to pay?
First the surgery is not without risk. Many specialist who do this surgery frequently will not do the surgery until the time is right. I have astigmatism and they refused to do mine early because it does not help your vision as well as it would others without this problem.
I went to see if I could have mine done but they said because of my astigmatism, I was not a good candidate. I have had the Lazier ophthalmologist tell me that since I am farsighted, nearsighted and have astigmatism it would be as beneficial to me. to have the surgery now.
They did tell me they could put a different lens in each eye - one for each eye problem but I might not be able to get use to it. I tried the contacts like that and I could not see anything. I could not learn to get my brain to adjust to one lens for farsightedness and one for nearsightedness. And though they say they can "help" astigmatism, it does not do much, since that is more of a focusing problems and not vision.
Because of all of the problems and they could not guarantee, I decided to wait to have mine done until the insurance will pay for it. I was afraid I would be wasting good money.
I hope this will help you with your decision. I would discuss this again with the ophthalmologist or whatever doctor will be doing the surgery and write down the details and then get a second opinion, if I were going to do this. Good Luck..lol :)
There used to be a time that cataracts weren't removed until "ripe" however that isn't the standard now. A procedure called phacoemusifacation is used now and "ripe" isn't really an appropriate term for any physician to be using. Cataracts may be surgically removed anytime.The patient must meet certain visual qualifications for insurance to pay. Additionally, it may be in your interest to ask about deluxe intraocular lenses if you decide to proceed with surgery.
A lot of the delay has to do more with insurance rather than just liability. Surgeons are now removing lenses (where cataracts occur) on otherwise healthy non-cataractous patients and implanting refractive/accomodating lenses. Yet, the patient pays for the whole surgery because it is elective and not necessary. Your doctor can still perform surgery before it is 'ripe' and have insurance pay, but he/she has to perform certain tests to make the requirements on your insurance.
Ms reallyit sort of has it about right.
In the 'old' days, when we didn't have the microscopes, the sutures, the ultrasound or phaco, when cataract surgery was done, almost 50% of the eyes were lost. This was from infection, retinal detachments, etc.
As we began doing 'micro' surgery with microscopes, little tiny sutures, better ways of removing hard or soft lenses, we didn't wait till the lens was cloudy enough to be considered mature. People now days get cataract surgery that don't have cataracts at all. The procedure is the same. And now as the only 'incision' is a 3mm stab incision, and a second needle size incision, the procedure takes about 10 minutes, and some people don't even patch the eye.
As far as insurance goes, if you have a cataract and it doesn't meet the insurance requirements for payment, eg it's a cosmetic procedure rather than a medical procedure, you can still get it done... you just have to pay the doctor, surgery center, etc. out of pocket. And that shouldn't cost more than about $1000 for the doctor and about the same for the surgery center, per eye.
I had relatively 'thick' lenses, and was a farily high hyperope. So I couldn't see close nor far away without my thick glasses. One day just decided ENOUGH and asked a friend to go ahead and to the surgery. Now I don't 'need' glasses to see far, but use them anyway as I have a bit of astigmatism which is ok by me anyway.
If you want to take this route, my personal feelings are that this is far more 'safe' than the corneal laser surgeries and you only risk the eye under the surgical knife once. Later on, when you're old and slower, using your walker, hip is bad, back is bad, knees are bad, and on and on, having that surgery is a bit harder. I figured I'd rather go through it now when my healing capability is better and I heal faster, than later when things are a bit rusty.