Understanding the human eye

Before choosing an option to treat your cataracts and presbyopia together with your doctor and improve your vision, it is important to understand how the human eye works, how your eyes change with age and how different disorders may affect your vision. Remember, this information is for educational purposes only. Consult your doctor to make an informed decision.

Watch a video on this.

 

Vision changes with age

To understand presbyopia and cataracts and how these conditions affect your vision, it’s important to understand how your eye works.

The human eye has two lenses that work together to focus light onto the retina. The outer focusing lens is called the cornea. The inner focusing lens is called the crystalline lens.

 

Light rays pass first through the cornea and then through the crystalline lens. The cornea and crystalline lens focus incoming light by bending all the light rays to meet at a single point on the retina. From the retina, these light rays are sent via the optic nerve as electrical pulses to the brain, enabling our mind to see a picture of what’s in front of us.