Can You Watch TV After Cataract Surgery?

If you’re due a cataract operation, there’s sure to be a hundred and one questions whirring around inside your head. When it comes to watching TV, the short answer is yes—you can watch TV afterward pretty much as soon as you fancy it. 

In fact, doing so is actively encouraged. The following looks at why this is—plus, other positive actions that will help you speed toward recovery.

Watching TV and Other Ways to Help Promote Cataract Surgery Recovery

• Can you watch TV after cataract surgery? Yes, you can
• Other ways to help the healing process

Can you watch TV after cataract surgery? Yes, you can

The good news is that you can watch TV virtually as soon as you come out of cataract surgery. Although you’ll have a dressing over the eye for the first 24 hours, when it’s not in situ you’ll be actively encouraged to use the eye.

Because age-related cataracts form over many years, the eye-brain interaction subtly alters to compensate. Eyesight is the result of light entering the eye, hitting the retina at the back, and being transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve. A cataract disrupts this flow, preventing the light from traveling smoothly from the front to the back of the eye. In turn, this changes the signals the brain receives—and over time it adapts to translate the altered information.

The first part of this information chain—the flow of light through the eye—immediately returns to normal when the cataract is removed. The second part, from the retina to the vision center in the brain, needs a little more time. After all, it’s spent probably over a decade deciphering interrupted messages—and the shift back to normality will need to be relearned.

Deliberate acts, such as looking at the TV, glancing away, and anything else that requires you to focus on different distances is a great way of jump-starting the brain to rediscover the messages that the newly restored flow of light transmits.

Other ways to help the healing process

As well as watching TV, there are plenty of other visual stimuli you can enact to further retrain the brain. These include:

• Using a computer, laptop, or cellphone.
• Reading books or magazines.
• Regularly alternating your gaze from near to far. For example, if you’re reading or watching TV, take a moment every few minutes to look out of the window, stare at pictures on the wall, or at anything else that’s further away from you.
• Close your eyes for a few moments, then open them and focus on something nearby. Then close them again and, on opening, focus on something far away.
• Trace shapes on the horizon or at a distance. This could be the fence in the yard, the peaks of mountains or hills, or anything else that you can see at a distance.

Of course, following your post-op instructions to the letter is also vital for healthy healing. Use your eyedrops as instructed, stay hydrated, don’t smoke, reduce (or cut out) alcohol consumption, and practice excellent hand hygiene when applying your eyedrops.

Sticking to the plan—which includes watching TV if that’s what brings you joy—is the ultimate route to a speedy recovery. Before you know it, you’ll be back to regular life and taking full advantage of your newly restored, cataract-free vision.

From TV to Diet and Everything In Between: Get Answers to FAQs at the Modern Cataract Surgery Clinic

The best clinical care is only one element of world-beating cataract surgery. It should also be complemented with incredible communication, customer service, and information. When you entrust us with your precious vision, we always go the extra mile—and that includes being there for all and any questions you might have.

Whether you want to know if you can watch TV after cataract surgery, have questions about medication, when you can drive, get back to golf, or whatever, we’re here to make your cataract journey as smooth as it can possibly be.

Find out more at https://www.moderncataractsurgery.com