Eye Floaters (Benign)
Eye floaters are small 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 improve 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.
Seeking immediate medical attention is especially important if the floaters are accompanied by flashes of light or a loss of peripheral vision. These symptoms may be caused by:
- Retinal detachment
- Retinal tear
- Bleeding within the eye
This set of symptoms is a medical emergency. Without prompt treatment it can result in permanent loss of vision.
Symptoms of Eye Floaters
Eye floaters move as the eyes move. 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. This can cause a change in the amount of light that hits the retina -- the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. This change causes the symptoms of eye floaters.
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.
Less commonly, eye floaters can result from other eye surgery or:
- Eye disease
- Eye injury
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Crystal-like deposits that form in the vitreous
- Intraocular tumors such as lymphoma (rarely)
Foreign bodies in the eye also can cause eye floaters.
Serious vitreous and retinal disorders associated with eye floaters include:
- Retinal detachment
- Retinal tear
- Vitreous detachment
- Vitreous hemorrhage (bleeding)
- Vitreous and retinal inflammation caused by viral infections, fungal infections, or auto-immune inflammation
- Intraocular tumors
In addition, a unique form of eye floaters is associated with the visual aura of migraine headaches.
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