Sometime after 50 years old, most of us will hear our eye doctor say, “You have cataracts.”

A cataract is a clouding of the lens inside the eye, causing vision loss that cannot be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or corneal refractive surgery like LASIK.

As frightening as cataracts might sound, modern cataract surgery can restore vision lost to cataracts—and reduce your dependence on eyeglasses as well.

Cataracts are associated with the aging process and are common among older Americans. In fact, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI) in 2010, 68.3 percent of Americans 80 and older have or had cataracts.

And the prevalence of cataracts in the U.S. is expected to grow significantly in future years, due to the aging of the population. Roughly 24.4 million Americans had cataracts in 2010, and that number is projected to grow to 50.2 million by the year 2050, according to NEI.

Thankfully, modern cataract surgery is one of the safest and most effective surgical procedures performed today.

More than 3 million cataract surgeries are performed in the United States every year, and majority of these procedures produce excellent visual outcomes.