When watching movies on the TV or working on your laptop, you suddenly notice dark blobs and shapes floating in your vision. You quickly rub your eyes, and they disappear right away. But after a few minutes, you start seeing them again. It is starting to annoy you because it does not go away no matter how hard you scratch your eyes.
What you are experiencing may not be dirt in your eyes, but eye doctors call them eye floaters. Most of the time, you can get eye floaters due to old age, and it happens when the vitreous (the jelly-like substance) turns into more liquid. Most that encounter this problem get an eye floaters treatment to get rid of it right away. Before you get a treatment, you need to learn and understand what eye floaters are and the causes that lead to it.
Knowing the Symptoms
Eye floaters may not cause any pain in your eyes, but it can get annoying all the time because they obstruct your view. You can find several symptoms of eye floaters which include:
- Dark or grey spots that move along with your eyes
When you try looking at them, they tend to move quickly out of your vision.
- Tiny shapes in your visual field that show as dark specks, or transparent strings
Some even describe it as tiny grey worms moving around.
- Small strings or shapes that gradually fade away from your vision after a while
- Spots that are most visible when looking at a bright, plain background like white walls or ceilings
Ensure you keep in mind these symptoms to determine when you need to get an eye floaters treatment. However, you do not necessarily need to get the treatment right away after seeing eye floaters for the first time. The best time to have it is when they constantly appear in your vision compared to last time.
Several Known Causes of Eye Floaters
You need to know the causes of eye floaters to prepare yourself when you start experiencing it. These are some causes that lead to eye floaters:
- Inflammation in the rear of the eye – Posterior uveitis is an inflammation in the sheets of the uvea in the eye’s rear area. This inflammation can cause the release of inflammatory waste into the vitreous that most people see as floaters. Inflammatory illnesses, infections, or other causes can cause posterior uveitis.
- Eye changes due to aging – As you grow older, your vitreous changes and partially liquefies over time. When the vitreous sags and shrinks, it gets lanky and clumps. The lanky parts of the vitreous blocks light particles from passing through the eye, which causes the tiny specks and shops on your retina.
- Ripped retina – The tears when a sagging vitreous clings on the retina. If it is left without treatment for a long time, the tear could ultimately form into detachment, which is the accumulation of liquid behind your retina that causes it to disconnect from your eye’s rear. You should never leave this untreated if you do not want to suffer permanent vision loss.
- Eyes are bleeding – In some cases, your eyes may bleed for many reasons, including hypertension, diabetes, injuries, and clogged blood vessels. The blood cells will then form as the floaters.
Now that you have knowledge of the causes and symptoms of eye floaters, it will help you become more aware in the future if you need an eye floaters treatment.
