It’s Cataract Awareness Month, and Dr. Chu visited with Ben Leber and Elizabeth Ries over at Twin Cities Live to dispel some myths and confirms some facts about cataracts.
Are cataracts a growth in your eye? What is the first symptom of cataracts? Is it true that once you have cataract surgery, you never need to do it again? and After surgery do you HAVE to wear reading glasses?
Watch below! Plus, check out Dr. Chu’s awesome-looking sneakers…
Transcription:
welcome back to Twin Cities Live this is kind of a shocking statistic did you know this two out of every three people over the age of 65 have a cataract and they develop as we age. if you’ve noticed that your vision has started to get a little bit cloudy it might be time to consider eye surgery because you can get those cataracts removed yeah so 66 of over 65. is that right is that is that how the numbers work out yeah wow that’s an easy way to remember if you’re over 65 it’s basically 66 brilliant all right so here to expel and exercise the Demons of these common myths about cataract surgery is Dr Chu from Chu Vision Institute hello doc how are you Ben Elizabeth listen Dr Chu shows up in scrubs and then we all are like look at your kicks can you what do you oh yeah oh we’re gonna Flex a little [Music]
the sneaker game you appreciate it I do appreciate it oh yeah fresh real fresh and I’m assuming very comfortable right super comfortable yeah because you’re on your feet a lot all day long you got to go in style yeah yeah and you’re ready to go very comfortable okay so we got a little fact after fiction game we always like doing this with you and I this is interesting a cataract is a growth on your eye is that fact or fiction? that’s actually Fiction it’s actually a changing and cloudiness inside the lens of the eye so it’s not a growth you know it’s not something that’s new it’s just an aging process okay I thought It grew because it when I see it in dogs it looks it looks like that its name cataract is like a white waterfall so if we let the Cataract get cloudy enough it turns into a white sort of uh opacity so it’s a growth inside the lens of the eye and it scatters light and makes things blurry interesting oh I like the fact that you dispel that because I always thought the same thing I thought because you can actually visibly see it I’m like well that’s got to be sometimes growing inside of the eyes on top of the eye there’s so many people though two out of three over the age of 65 that’s a lot yeah it’s good for business [laughter ] it’s a good way to look at it kicks to buy all right so number two uh the main symptom of a cataract is cloudy vision true or false fact of fiction you know yes uh cloudy vision is one of the first signs okay um you know you actually uh start losing vision in low light conditions so you might say like you know I need more I need more light to read um it’s harder for me to drive at night I see glare and Halo on oncoming headlights those are some of the earliest symptoms before you start having blurriness and not being able to read and do your daily activity so we were seeing that image and you could see the the first image was really cloudy and blurry so this is sort of a simulation of what it might look like for someone who has a cataract absolutely yeah it would it would even get dimmer because it’s almost like having a pair of sunglasses grow inside the eye so the blurriness blurriness was improve and then the brightness would improve as well colors improve first thing that patients notice is that the vibrancy of colors they all say Blues are blue or whites are whiter um they they love that so the world is more beautiful really the world is more beautiful sometimes they’re looking at like oh my God I didn’t know how to clean my house [Laughter]
yeah okay all right we got another fact or fiction once I have a cataract removed it can’t come back is that fact or fiction boy I hope that’s a fact it’s one and done so that is true once the cataract’s removed it doesn’t come back so we’re removing the Cloudy lens and we have artificial implants that replace that oh so those implants will never get clouded over no matter no matter what exactly it’s a one and done they’ve been around since the 50s they’ve improved over the last you know 60 70 years but uh there’s so many options with those and that’s what’s what if you live another 65 years it still goes so yeah that’s right that’s right yeah then let’s see yeah yeah maybe I suppose I suppose to live to 130. yeah I mean maybe they need another surgery when they’re 130. you know it’s rare but we have done say genetic cataracts on younger you know adults okay and those you know age 18 20 and then they’ll last until you know throughout their life so would you say it’s one of the safer things like you know because as far as with any surgery there’s a risk with any surgery there’s a risk that maybe your body isn’t going to like what happened is this overall pretty high on the list of safety yeah statistically you know most patients are you know Medicare patients if you look at that that data it’s not only the most commonly performed surgery in the United States but it’s also the safest surgery performed in terms of complications and things okay that’s really good to know all right let’s go on to the next one number four well I need reading glasses after a cataract surgery is that fact or fiction so nowadays you do not wow so this is one of the big things that many people probably don’t know is that we have those implants now that give patients options they can see distance computer screen and reading they have many choices whether you’ve had LASIK surgery or not really we have implants that can give great vision for distance for near depending what the patient’s needs are so you’re really giving somebody a brand new eyeball like a brand new lens because you’re not only getting rid of the cloudiness we talked about the cloudiness and the brightness and all that stuff but if you because I’m getting into the age where I kind of have to do this a little bit I don’t think I need readers quite yet but things up here ah yeah super blurry yep so if I got to that point I could have these all the way up here like normal like I’m a teenager absolutely yeah what a life we’re turning back the clock you know so now it’s not just the medical process where you’re taking out the Cloudy lens putting an implant in it’s actually like refractive surgery like Lasik we get to know who you are what your needs are and then we try to customize what we have available and so having all the choices available is what’s key that’s so interesting okay do you find I want to ask you this that a lot of people maybe because the shift happens so gradually that you don’t really notice a little bit blurry or find that some people come in and don’t even realize that they have the Cataract and you’ve done an exam yeah a lot of times they go to their primary eye care provider they’re looking for glasses and all of a sudden you know they’re discovering hey glasses won’t really help this anymore it’s time for surgery okay but one thing that’s important is when they’re looking around they should really you know as a surgeon we have the most options for you as a patient the very first time you do it right it’s heartbreaking when somebody comes in they’ve had they’ve seen the show and they say you know what um I’m not super happy with my choices or my results can you help me and not everybody can always be helped the second time around okay so who you’re choosing to do your surgery is very important I think it is I think you want somebody who’s really good at talking about all the options has access to all the options and latest Technologies because it’s really the first time is your best time yeah and somebody who has good taste in shoes well that’s the other thing I mean you might you might come in and you may like oh those shoes are kind of like oh they’re cool but you walk out of surgery and you’re like whoa I didn’t realize you made such banging if these look yellow to you you should come in and see us because these are supposed to be white Dr Chu thank you so much we love having you here thank you all right head over to chuvision.com to schedule an appointment with Dr Chu we posted that link on our website twincitieslive.com now every patient’s gonna expect him to have killer kicks so he better get a new closet coming up after the break
