If you’ve ever had cataract surgery, one of the first things a doctor will hand you after the procedure is a pair of sunglasses. But why should you wear them? Here we lay out the reasons why we have to wear sunglasses after cataract surgery:
What are cataracts?
First you might be wondering what cataracts even are. Put simply, cataracts are what causes your eye’s natural lens to cloud over. Cataracts typically develop slowly, over the course of years even, normally when we’re over the age of 40. The main symptoms of cataracts are blurry or fogged vision.
How cataract surgery works
If it’s determined that you indeed have cataracts, then you’ll likely have to have cataract surgery. This involves replacing the natural lens which has become cloudy with an artificial lens that is clear. This artificial lens is called an intraocular lens (IOL).
Cataract surgery and sunglasses
Some IOLs have special UV coating to protect against UV rays; others, however, don’t. Either way, the surgery has still left your retina vulnerable, and even if you have an IOL with that UV coating, you’re still at risk to eye damage due to UV rays. You could even cause your cataracts to return as UV rays are one of the leading causes of cataracts. That’s why doctors recommend you wearing sunglasses outside for the first year after your surgery.
However, if you want to make sure your cataracts never return, you should be wearing sunglasses for more than that initial year. You should also make sure they offer the right protection against all of the various kinds of UV rays. At Real Shades, we offer sunglasses with 100% UVA and UVB protection. So if you’re recovering from cataract surgery, or wanting to prevent cataracts in the future, look through our inventory for a new pair today.
It’s interesting to learn that you should wear sunglasses for more than a year after you get cataract surgery. My wife is thinking about getting cataract surgery and she was wondering how long she’ll have to protect her eyes before they go back to normal. I’ll be sure to tell her that she’ll have to wear sunglasses for more than a year if she decides to get the surgery done.
The problem is with UV. So why can’t you solve the problem by simply wearing regular glasses. Unless you are someone who gets their vision fixed to 20/20 with no astigmatism then you probably are still going to be wearing glasses. That’s my case. I’m just getting very weak progressives with a strong astigmatism correction.
From what I can see, if you go for the base lens 1.50 you get over 80% UV protection. Go up and you are getting 100%. This seems to be the case with a bunch of providers. Just make sure that the lens you get are 100% UV protection.