Color changes after cataract surgery

Posted , 9 users are following.

I chose monofocal IOLs for my surgery, one for near and one for far. The near was done first , 5 weeks ago  (in my non-dominant eye) because that had the worse cataract. The other was done 3 days ago.

I am generally pleased-my near vision is at J2 and my far vision (in the newly done eye)  the day after surgery was only 20/50 but he said it would improve. I was surprised it was that bad since I wasn't seeing blurry and felt fine to drive to my appt. I suppose I was seeing better than 20/50 with both eyes together. Seems odd since one is set for near vision but that appears to be the case.

 I noticed something odd today though. Looking at a friend , her hair looked a different color than what I knew it to be from before. She has short gray hair and all the ends looked tipped in yellow. It's a minor thing but has anyone else experienced anything like this?

0 likes, 16 replies

16 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi susan44499 - this may be an odd response but it may be that your friend’s hair really is that colour.  Grey hair is known to yellow when exposed to heat ie sunlight, hair dryers even tanning beds.  If you google and look it up you will find many articles on that. 

    I do know cataracts cause every colour to be a yellowish brown tint and I didn’t notice that until both eyes were operated on.  You will notice all colours to be a different shade now that the cataracts are gone.  Whites and lighter colours seem to me to change the most.

    • Posted

      Are you saying I wasn't seeing the true color of her hair before? This was just the tips. I'll have to ask others who were there today if that's what it looked like to them. That'll answer it for me I guess. 

      My husband just noticed better color after his were done-more vibrant, esp blues. 

    • Posted

      BTW, I never felt the cataracts caused my vision to be cloudy. Even though I know that's what it is- a clouding of the lens. With me it was more that they could no longer correct me to 20/20. I think i was corrected to 20/50 or maybe 20/40.

    • Posted

      Cataracts likely affect the vision differently for each person.   For me I experienced less contrast - especially at night although daytime too. This caused a lot more glare with night driving.  Was also seeing double and unbeknownst to me at the time it did cause everything to have a yellowish brown tint.  Whites were so much whiter after surgery.   So if I looked at something with cataracts features were blurry/fuzzy so I wouldn’t know if something was a bit off colour wise.

      But it is a fact that many with grey hair will see it turn yellowish with heat.   So if your friend uses a hair drier or flat iron or curling iron - spends time outside in sun then it can definitely have an affect on the colour of her hair.  

    • Posted

      Is it possible your friend’s hair hadn’t completely gone grey - perhaps natural or coloured hair still visible on tips?
  • Posted

    Since I have one eye with a monofocal toric IOL and the other eye with a natural lens that won't  need cataract surgery for probably several years, I compare the colors between the eyes often.

    The first few weeks after cataract surgery I observed strange purple/violet haze but that faded fairly quickly. Blues of course are more intense in the IOL eye since the old natural lens gets yellowed and reduces blues.  However yellows/greens are then enhanced in the old natural lens eye compared to the IOL eye.

    Whites are very pure with the IOL eye of course, only noticeable when I compare between the two eyes separately.

  • Posted

    How are your near and intermediate visions in the eye done 3 days back?

    Off hand, it seems that your surgeon picked a wrong prescription for your second eye?

    • Posted

      In the eye done for distance three days ago,  I don’t have good near or intermediate vision but it’s not a problem because I’m using both eyes together  Even though I’m not aware of it , I guess I must be using my left  (near vision)  eye for those distances  because I. have no problems reading at those distances. 

    • Posted

      Then, in that case, if you don't have good vision at any distance, you probably have ended up with significant farsightedness. (which unfortunately is worse than ending up with slight nearsightedness).

      Thus, a guess that "your surgeon picked a wrong prescription for your second eye" is still quite probable.

  • Posted

    This is a woman I see fairly  often and I don’t believe she’s done anything differently with her hair since I saw her before my surgeries. 
    • Posted

      I don’t believe she’s done anything differently either with her hair. It is your vision that has changed.  Perfectly normal that one sees differently once cataracts are removed.
  • Posted

    Hi I see colours differently also. What I thought was grey is now green.. I feel like colours are more vivid in general.
  • Posted

    I don’t notice colors bring more vivid after surgery like many say. Maybe because my 2nd eye wasn’t as bad a cataract.

  • Posted

    Susan,

    I curious if the yellow color shift went away. I had cataract surgery (2nd eye - no color issues w/the 1st): during the next day post-op visit while reading the charts, I noticed the same color shift. When I shut one eye, the doctor's white coat was white but when shut the eye w/the recent surgery, everything had a yellow-green tint.

    My surgeon thought it was the result of the medication that was applied during surgery; that it would go away; he had never had anyone experience a color shift; he could see nothing wrong in my eye. But today (2-days later), I still have the color shift: everything has a light yellow-green tint to it.

    With both eyes open, the color shift is slightly noticable now that I now what I am looking for on lighter colored objects.

    (Your friend's grey hair was not yellowed: sad that someone dismissed your question. You did / do have a color shift. I photograph so B&W photos don't look B&W... (insert eye roll) so I'm curious if your brain adjusted and you now see w/o the color shift.)

    • Posted

      That sounds unusual to me. Most people with a new IOL are almost blown away by how bright and vivid the colours are. When I had my first eye done, it was almost like getting a new super HD LED TV. My symptoms of a cataract was that I was seeing double vision. I did not know other than reading about it, that the colour of my vision had probably changed. But when I got the first eye done, it became super apparent. My left eye which had a much less advanced cataract all of a sudden was making the whites look yellow. Whites with the new IOL eye were bright white and if anything the whole range shifted to the blues. During this time with only one eye done everything looked much better with both eyes open. I seemed to suppress the yellow from the natural cataract eye. The lens I got in this first eye was a blue light filtering type that has a slight yellow tint (to filter out blue). But, this effect must be very minor, because that eye was very bright white, while my natural cataract eye was obviously shifting everything to the yellow.

      .

      I recently had my second eye done to give me mini-monovsion with a slightly different lens. The first lens was an AcrySof IQ, and the last one was a Clareon. Both have blue light filtering. Now with both eyes done, I do not notice any difference at all in the colour I see when I switch between eyes. Both are giving me a bright white when looking at whites. I notice now that on a clear night with a full moon the moon looks almost bluish. I had gotten used to it looking yellow....

      .

      My thoughts in your case is that something is not right. Sometimes surgeons inject an antibiotic as part of the surgery, and they also use many different eye drops prior to the surgery. I'm wondering if something like that could be causing it. If that is the case it should go away.

    • Edited

      I believe that this post-op effect can actually be caused by some medication and should go away. As for the color change after cataract surgery, I believe it depends on how bad the cataract was. In my case, which was already well advanced, after the surgery, the color change was dramatic! As the cataract adds yellow to everything you see, if you remember to mix the primary colors, you will get Yellow(from cataract)+Red=Orange, Yellow(from cataract)+Blue=Green, Yellow(from cataract)+Red +Blue=Brown. In short, all colors are changed. I was fascinated, as I saw many Browns in place of real Purples, many Oranges in place of real Reds and many Greens in place of real Blues, etc. After the surgery it was like seeing a different world.

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