Roughly half of the American population will have a cataract by the age of 65. By the age of 75, nearly all Americans will have at least one cataract.  

A cloudiness of the eye's lens, a cataract does not necessarily need to be removed immediately upon its detection. In many instances, a cataract starts very small, and most doctors prefer to wait until the cataract is of significant size to and can interfere with vision before removing it. In some cases, the cataract never reaches such a size, and therefore does not need to be removed.

However, once you've been diagnosed as having a cataract, regular visits to your eye doctor are necessary to monitor its growth.

While most people are understandably fearful of surgery, cataract surgery is actually the most commonly performed type of surgery in the United States, and many surgeons, thanks to the overwhelming number of cataract patients, have performed several thousand cataract surgeries. Another piece of good news concerning cataracts is the progress being made post-surgery.

Whereas it was once commonplace for cataract patients to need thicker eyeglass lenses after surgery, patients can now have intraocular lenses (IOLs) implanted during surgery. The IOL is essentially a replacement lens that can even eliminate the need for glasses entirely, as is the case with the new multifocal IOLs. Even traditional IOLs often only require a patient to need reading glasses for close vision.