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The #1 Sign It May Be Time for Cataract Surgery. 99% of Patients Think They Have to Wait! · See Better without Glasses by Dr. Scott Spector

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Cataract is a terrible word.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like something that happens to your grandmother or like a disease you catch.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: People believe that a cataract is something that some people get and some don't.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: What's really going on started in your 40s.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's happening to every single person, and it's more like going gray than getting sick.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Dr.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Scott Spector.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an eye surgeon and I've been discussing cataracts for a very long time.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: As we speak today, I'm in the middle of changing how I explain this in my own office.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I've realized is that the word cataract has cost people years of seeing well.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Stay with me and I'll show you what's actually happening to the lens inside your eye.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Today, the average person deals with their cataracts at a much younger age than when I became an eye surgeon.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lens inside your eye sitting behind the colored part called the iris.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: This structure is about the size of an MM.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's clear, flexible, and does about a third of the focusing work of your eye.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you hit your 40s, the lens does what every other tissue in your body does.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It ages.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Three things happen to it slowly over decades.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: It stiffens, so it stops changing shape as easily as it used to.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: In a younger eye, the lens changes shape depending on whether you are watching TV or reading a book.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Also, it gradually changes color.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It goes from being clear to yellow to brown and eventually to black.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: That process can take many years.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: As this happens, it starts to scatter light instead of allowing it to pass through cleanly.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is why headlights get starbursts around them and why a low-lit restaurant menu is hard to read.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So this big scary word cataract isn't an infection, injury, or anything you did wrong.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: It has nothing to do with your diet.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's aging tissue doing what aging tissue does.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So when does it start?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: It starts much earlier than anybody tells you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: The national average for people needing reading glasses is 44.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: To me, that's the very first sign that your lens of your eye is aging.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: One could even say that's the first sign of a cataract.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's it, drugstore readers or needing to use a light on your phone in a restaurant or holding your things at arm's length.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're 45 or 50 and you've started to notice these changes, you're already aware of this.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's just simply not called the cataract this stage, although it actually is.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: We just don't use that word until much later.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: We actually call it presbyopia.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, it's semantics.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We've got this one word that actually describes a process and we save it for the more advanced stages.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: With cataract formation, people walk around thinking they don't have anything until suddenly they're told that they have cataract.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: My goal is to help people understand the process and to recognize that you can choose to intervene at any point in the process.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if we treated gray hair this way.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: A person in their 40s starts seeing gray hair.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Some people get their hair colored.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a personal decision.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: People don't have to wait.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't told it's not gray enough yet.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Come back in a year so somebody can take another look and decide whether it's ready.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: They noticed an aging process, decided it bothered them, and decided to treat it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some people do that and some don't.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And both of those are completely fine.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't know that they can treat an aging eye.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your lens is essentially in the same category.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's aging, and it will continue to age whether you deal with it or not.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The only actual question is whether it's bothering you enough to do something about it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a medical question.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's a question only you can answer.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is this the kind of thing you want more of?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hit subscribe.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I put one of these out every week, and I'm trying to create a way to understand eye issues in a simplistic way.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get back to it.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I started doing this operation many years ago, the average patient was in their 80s.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: That was normal.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We had a good operation back then, but not what we have today.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Today, the average person having cataract surgery is under 65.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, many people do this in their 50s.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing about the human body changed.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: We don't get cataracts any sooner, but two things have changed.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that the operation got dramatically better and dramatically safer.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: We can now use lasers to create a safer and more precise procedure.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: More importantly, though, we now replace the lens with a variety of amazing lenses that can completely change the way you see.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: We now have lenses like the Panoptics Pro that completely corrects vision.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Almost all people with this lens are 100% eyeglass free.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: The second is generational.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: In the world that we live in, people don't just accept things.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: People are proactive and we have the technology to back it up.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Historically, people who came in before simply accepted their aging.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Vision got worse, that was aging, and the aging was something that happened to you.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The generation in my chair now doesn't accept anything.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: They have their teeth done, their skin done, their knees done.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going to accept a decade of squinting because that's what happens after you're 60.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what do we have here?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: We live in a time where technology and desire are in sync.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, we're still talking about it with vocabulary from 40 years ago.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Today's cataracts are not your grandparents' cataracts.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to the part I actually care about.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's an old way of thinking in my field that a cataract has to be ripe before you'd operate on it.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: That the patient waits and comes back and waits some more until the surgeon decides it's time.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: That was reasonable thinking once when the operation was harder and riskier and it was safer to postpone it.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of that thinking still exists, but it shouldn't.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Here's how I see it.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: In most cases, nobody really needs this operation.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lens replacement or cataract surgery should be done when you want to see better.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you wait, your vision will gradually get worse.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing dramatic, just a little bit at a time.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, you'll know when you want to see better.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole story.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: The decision is made by you, the education is provided by me.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's done when you want to see better.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: If your vision is fine for the life you're living, just leave it alone.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: You will know, I guarantee it.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: My rule is simple.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I never push this on anybody, but I never die anyone the opportunity to see better.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: What I won't do is let somebody sit for years not knowing that options exist.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's the part that gets me.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not that people choose to wait, but that they were never told that they had options.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: One practical note on the economics of cataracts.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: When the lens is age enough to be called a visually significant cataract, your insurance will contribute toward the basic operation.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: The upgraded lenses and the laser technology are not covered.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'll discuss this in detail in another video.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your lens is aging.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: It started before you noticed, and if you're already reaching for readers, you've been in the aging stage for a while.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It'll keep going at its own pace.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: It isn't dangerous, and it isn't urgent, and in most cases it will never become urgent.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something to ignore, but it is usually fixed on your timeline, not mine.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Which means the question isn't whether I think it's ready, it's whether you are ready.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is it bothering you?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: You are the only person qualified to answer that.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'll help you decide, but it's your decision.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And as I said before, you will know.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: It may be now, it may be a year from now, and it may be 10 years from now.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's important is understanding the process and understanding how the healthy eye ages.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to see how this actually works, I did a video where I take the eye apart and show you the two lenses and what each one does.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've seen that, everything I just said has a picture behind it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one to watch next.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: And subscribe so you don't miss what's coming.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: You came in thinking this was something that happens to you later.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that's happening to you now, slowly, and the timing of what you do about it belongs to you.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you in the next video.