This is a very common procedure for us and nothing at all to worry about. We’ll make a small incision in the surface of the eye. It’s not as bad as it sounds – we promise. Then we use ultrasound to dissolve the natural, cloudy lens. Once that’s done we’ll replace it with an artificial lens and that’s it. The eye will heal itself in just a couple of days.

All surgery has risks but cataract surgery is one of the safest. Every year in the UK around 400,000 are carried out – and the success rate is above 98%. With us, it’s actually above 99.5%.

The sooner the better really – it increases the chance of success and you can enjoy better vision sooner.

You’ll be surprised how quick it’s all over. You shouldn’t be in theatre for more than 20 minutes – but you should expect to be at our private hospital for 3-4 hours.

You’ll leave theatre wearing clear shields (to protect your eyes while they heal) and rest for a couple of hours in our recovery suite. Before being discharged our ophthalmologist will come and make sure everything is okay and talk you through your tailor-made aftercare plan. Once home, make sure you rest and use your antibiotic eye drops as directed. You’ll find your vision is better than before the surgery in just a few days and will get better and better over the next few weeks.

You can’t – but please don’t try. Your eye is held securely in position during surgery. Just sit back and relax and it’ll all be over before you know it.

Our cataract surgery starts at £2,350 for standard lenses per eye. Trifocal toric lenses are £3,860 per eye.

This is called secondary cataract – or officially ‘posterior capsular opacification’. This condition which affects around 1 in 8 people is when the membrane also becomes cloudy. In standard cataract surgery, this is intentionally left untouched but can be corrected with further surgery.

No, as long as it’s carried out by an experienced consultant ophthalmologist you should have an exceptionally low risk. However, left untreated, cataracts can lead to blindness. We recommend treating it as soon as you can.

Thankfully glare issues are now pretty uncommon with monofocal lenses. It is more likely after trifocal surgery but usually settles down after a few months.

Our success rates are great across all lenses. However, with trifocals you could also define failure as needing glasses after surgery. So, the success criteria following trifocal surgery is much more stringent.

All going well you should be able start using eye make up in two or three weeks – but you should try to be as gentle as you can.

Your vision will be very blurry during surgery and you might only be able to see vague lights and colours.

You’ll be surprised how quickly you can see again. Most people can see again within a few hours. You should be healed within a couple of days and fully recovered in a week or so.

Your vision could be blurry for a couple of days but often much less.

We don’t usually use any stiches but in the rare occasions we do, they are removed after 4 to 6 weeks.

Cataracts never heals itself – it only gets worse. Your vision will gradually deteriorate as colours and brightness become increasingly dull – eventually leading to blindness.

It’s rare, but when swelling does occur it usually goes down within a couple of weeks. Contact your ophthalmologist if you’re concerned.

Follow the advice of your surgeon but they’re usually worn for a few hours following surgery and during your first night’s sleep.

Try using a visor or sunglasses to reduce any glare but this usually improves naturally within a few days.

Yes. We replace your natural lens with an artificial one, which can’t ever develop cataract.

In our experience, insurers will cover treatment for both eyes. If you have cataracts on both sides, they will only get worse. It is important that you have surgery on both eyes as close together as possible so you do not feel unbalanced for a long period. If you experience resistance from your health insurance company, our surgeons will write to your insurer directly to advise as such.

It’s unlikely that your vision will be worse, but with surgery there is never a guarantee you won’t need stronger glasses. However, without cataracts, your vision will be significantly improved.

If you choose a trifocal (these have superseded multifocals) then you would automatically get a toric trifocal if you needed it. If you chose a simple monofocal lens then you would still have the visual effect of astigmatism after surgery.

Not really no. If you’re really looking for it, from the right angle you can sometimes see a reflection from the lens for a fraction of a second.

If this happens the surgeon will stop until you’ve calmed down. If you’re really nervous you can choose to have your surgery under general anaesthetic.