Inside the eye is a small lens similar to a camera lens. The lens sits just behind the coloured iris. The lens focuses light onto the retina at the back of the eye for clear vision. As you age, your natural eye lens becomes thicker and eventually cloudy. The first thing you may notice is difficulty in focusing for near. You may need to get reading glasses to be able to cope with small print. Seeing clearly at arm-length distance may also become difficult. As the lens thickens further, it becomes sufficiently cloudy to be called a cataract. Your lens will never clear again and so it will need to be removed to help you see clearly again. Your vision may continue to decline, even with glasses. Glasses may become an inconvenience, that you have to rely on. They may interfere with your work, hobbies or social life. Some people don’t like how they look in spectacles. Cataract Surgery removes the cloudy lens and gives a unique opportunity to correct your spectacle correction. At the time of surgery your cloudy lens is replaced by plastic lens of a specific power to correct your vision, so you don’t need glasses for distance. In addition, there are a range of special lenses that can correct astigmatism and also allow clear focusing at intermediate distances and near. For many people this can allow crystal clear glasses-free vision, at all distances. For those people who are yet to develop a visually significant cataract they can take advantage of the same surgery, now called Refractive Lens Exchange, to insert a special lens to also allow crystal clear glasses-free vision, at all distances.