Cataract surgery is a common outpatient procedure that involves removing the lens from the eye and replacing it with an artificial intraocular lens (IOL). This procedure is often the best way to treat cataracts and leave patients with clearer and sharper vision. While cataract surgery is generally a safe procedure, there is, as with any surgical procedure, the risk of complications. With surgical expertise and advanced technology, cataract surgery can be adapted to your unique eyes and is a precise way to protect and preserve your vision.
It's normal to feel a burning, stinging, or gritty sensation in your eye while you recover from cataract surgery. Although vision may be blurred right after surgery, it should start to improve within a few days. You may also notice that colors appear brighter, since cataracts tend to make colors look more muted. Within 2 to 3 months after cataract surgery, your eye should be comfortable and your vision should be clear.
If you have residual nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism, you may need prescription eyeglasses. To reduce the need for eyeglasses, a laser vision correction procedure, such as LASIK or PRK, can often be performed to sharpen your eyesight. It's normal for vision fluctuations to occur during recovery from cataract surgery. However, you should expect your vision to stabilize within two to three months. You may need another follow-up visit with your eye doctor around this time period to check your vision and ensure that your eye has fully healed.
After cataract surgery, you may notice that your vision is blurred. This is normal as the eye heals and adapts. You'll see a noticeable improvement in just a few days. Complete healing usually takes about 8 weeks. Keep in mind that 10 to 30% of patients have a condition called secondary cataracts, which creates the feeling that the cataract is “coming back”.
Therefore, you should expect your eyes to have stabilized 2 to 4 months after surgery. The consensus seems to be that it takes 1 to 3 months for vision to correct after cataract surgery. You'll probably have another appointment with your eye doctor around that time. In the meantime, taking some basic precautions can ensure that cataract surgery is successful and uncomplicated. Recovery from cataract surgery usually lasts a short time, and you can resume many of your normal daily activities.
According to the American Optometric Association, approximately 90 percent of patients say they have better vision after cataract surgery. This is what causes many people to exclaim about how amazed they were by the results of successful cataract surgery (like most) and talk about it for weeks, describing how much clearer their vision became afterwards. Among other anxieties, they wonder how long it will take for their vision to improve after cataract surgery.
