Eye floaters are small moving spots that appear in your field of vision. They may be especially noticeable when you look at something bright, such as white paper or a blue sky. Eye floaters can be annoying, but they generally don’t interfere with your sight.
Occasionally a particularly large eye floater may cast a subtle shadow over your vision. But this tends to occur only in certain types of light.
Most of the time people learn to live with eye floaters and ignore them. And they often become less noticable over months to years. Only rarely do benign eye floaters become bothersome enough to consider treatment.
But sometimes eye floaters are a sign of a more serious condition. You should seek immediate medical attention if you notice a sudden increase in the number of eye floaters.
Immediate medical attention is especially important if the floaters are accompanied by flashes of light or a loss of side vision. If you have these symptoms, see an eye doctor right away. If available, choose an ophthalmologist with retinal expertise. Without immediate treatment, you can have permanent vision loss.
These symptoms may be caused by:
Retinal detachment
Retinal tear
Bleeding within the eye
Symptoms of Eye Floaters
Eye floaters, when seen, usually appear to have some slight. They generally appear to dart away when you try to focus on them.
Eye floaters can appear in many different shapes, such as:
Black or gray dots
Squiggly lines
Threadlike strands, which can be knobby and semi-transparent
Cobwebs
Ring shaped
Once you develop eye floaters they usually do not go away, though they tend to improve over time.
Causes of Eye Floaters
Most eye floaters are caused by small flecks of a protein called collagen.
The back compartment of the eye is filled with a gel-like substance called vitreous humor.
As you age, the vitreous and its millions of fine collagen fibers shrink and become shred-like. Shreds can accumulate in the vitreous. The clear vitreous gel which completely fills the back of the eye earlier in life decreases in size and no longer can fill this space…. it pulls away from the retina and it is often the areas of previous attachment to the retina which are seen as floaters as they now float freely in the vitreous gel.
These changes can happen at any age. They most often occur between ages 50 and 75, especially in people who are very nearsighted or have had cataract surgery.
Rarely, eye floaters can result from other eye surgery or:
Eye disease
Eye injury
Diabetic retinopathy
Crystal-like deposits that form in the vitreous
Eye tumors such as lymphoma (rarely)
Serious eye disorders associated with eye floaters include:
Retinal detachment
Retinal tear
Vitreous hemorrhage (bleeding)
Vitreous and retinal inflammation caused by viral infections, fungal infections, or auto-immune inflammation
Eye tumors
In addition, a unique form of eye floaters is associated with the visual aura of migraine headaches. Certain types of migraine headaches can be associated with scintillating, kaleidoscope-type visual patterns with some apparent movement but these do not really resemble the spider web floaters and flashbulb type “flashes” seen with vitreous and retinal conditions.
When to Seek Medical Attention for Eye Floaters
If you only have a few eye floaters that don’t change over time, it usually does not indicate a serious eye problem.
It’s important to see an eye doctor if:
Eye floaters seem to worsen over time, especially if the changes are sudden in onset.
You experience flashes of light or any vision loss accompanied by eye floaters.
You develop eye floaters after eye surgery or eye trauma.
You have eye pain along with eye floaters.
Treatment of Eye Floaters
Benign eye floaters almost never require medical treatment.
If they are bothersome, you can move them away from your field of vision by moving your eyes. This maneuver shifts the fluid in your eyes. Looking up and down is usually more effective than looking from side to side.
If eye floaters are so dense and numerous that they affect your vision, your eye doctor may consider a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy. During this procedure, the vitreous and its floating debris are removed and replaced with a salt solution.
Vitrectomy may have complications, such as:
Retinal detachment
Retinal tears
Cataracts
The risks of such complications is small but if they occur vision can be permanently damaged. For this reason most surgeons will not perform vitrectomy unless eye floaters are causing an extraordinary visual handicap.
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/benign-eye-floaters?page=2
Learn more about floaters: http://www.lasereyesurgeryhub.co.uk/comprehensive-guide-floaters/
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