Eye Floaters and Flashes
Reviewed by Hank Rosenthal, O.D.
Floaters or spots in the Eye
Eye Floaters, also known as vitreous floaters or eye spots. They are tiny specks, circles, or thread-like clouds that appear in your field of vision. To people who have looked under a microscope at microscopic cells, eye floaters may seem similar in appearance. Eye floaters can usually bee seen when looking at plain, light colored backgrounds.
Eye Floaters Causes
Floaters in the eye are usually caused by age but sometimes eye injuries or other circumstances may also cause them. As we age the vitreous humour, the jelly-like substance that fills the inner eye and helps stabilize the eye, begins to clump in certain areas. These are eye floaters. As we age more and more the vitreous humour degenerates and can detach from the back wall of the eye and form more eye floaters. If an eye injury is severe enough to change the structure of the vitrous humour, this can form eye floaters as well as lead to retinal detachment. When this occurs, flashes of light may also appear with an increase in eye floaters. Also migraines or high blood pressure can cause flashes of light along with eye floaters. When these symptoms occur, an eye care professional should diagnose the situation.
Symptoms of Eye Floaters
- Small objects with different shapes appear in your vision
- Objects seems to appear and disappear while moving slowly
- Flashes of light appear in vision
- Sometimes present with migraine headaches
Eye Floaters Treatment
Although eye floaters are usually harmless, there are treatments for them. People who have a growth in number or size of eye floaters or see flashing lights should be examined by an eye care professional to see if there are more complicated issues. People who have had eye surgery , are diabetic, or are very near-sighted are more prone to complications and should have a check up by an eye care professional. For the extreme case that surgery is wanted or needed to remove eye floaters, there are laser treatments to remove eye floaters.
[Page updated 2/2011]
