Eye Floaters and Flashes – Causes and Treatment
Spots in your vision are called eye floaters. These spots drift through the field of vision when you look at bright objects. Although eye floaters do not cause any pain, they can be annoying. Large eye floaters may cause a shadow over your vision. These large floaters appear only when exposed to certain types of light. Eye floaters and flashes move around in your eye and seem to move away when the focus is on them.
Change in the protein fibers that make up the vitreous part of the eye is what causes eye floaters. There are some serious eye disorders that can be associated with eye floaters, such as, a torn retina, detached retina, inflamed vitreous, vitreous bleeding, and eye tumors.
Causes of eye floaters
Eye floaters and flashes are mainly caused by the changes in the protein fibers (collagen). These changes are part of the aging process. Collagen is the protein that makes up the vitreous of the eye. Floaters are flecks of collagen that shrink as you age. Once they shrink to little shreds, they bind together to cast shadows on the retina of the eye. Although very rare and unlikely, floaters may be caused by eye injury, diabetic retinopathy, eye tumors, or deposits in the vitreous.
Eye floaters may be of different shapes and sizes. They may be in the form of black or grey dots, thread-like structures, rings, cobwebs, or squiggly lines.
Eye floaters treatment
When you start noticing a large number or large-sized floaters or rapid changes in floaters, you need to consult a doctor immediately. Flashes of light, loss of side vision, eye pain, or rapid changes in floaters are a cause of concern and require immediate medical help.
The treatment would depend on what causes eye floaters. Benign floaters do not require any treatment. Shifting your focus will help get rid of them. Too large floaters or too many floaters may, however, require surgical treatment.
Eye floaters do not cause any pain. Most people who experience eye floaters learn to live with them since they do not interfere with their vision. Age-related change in the protein composition of the vitreous is what causes eye floaters. People with nearsightedness or who have just had a cataract surgery are more susceptible to developing eye floaters.
