Have you ever seen a weird blob or worm floating in your field of vision while looking at a light? Not only that—it moves with you as you turn your head. If you don’t already know, it is a natural phenomenon called eye floaters, which often increase as you age. Being natural, they should not cause pain or discomfort or even impact your ability to see clearly.

What Are Eye Floaters?

While many see floaters as almost transparent blobs or strings in their vision, they can sometimes appear gray or black. Others are so big that they may appear to cast a shadow over your vision. 

They mostly occur due to changes caused by age within the fluid or jelly in your eye. The jelly liquefies and contracts, forming scattered collagen clumps. These clumps then cast tiny shadows onto the retina, and you perceive them as floaters. 

What Causes Them?

While the more common cause of floaters is age, they can also occur because of other reasons. Here are the less common causes:
 

• Ocular Injury

If you have recently experienced blunt force trauma to your eye or if it was damaged in an accident, you will notice more floaters.
 

• Myopia

People with myopia tend to have more floaters than those with normal eyes or other eye conditions. The reason for this is that the liquefying and contraction of the vitreous, called vitreous syneresis, occurs faster in myopes. 
 

• Inflammation

If you experience ocular inflammation and swelling, you will likely have more floaters. 
 

• Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetic retinopathy causes floaters much differently. The condition impacts the blood vessels that supply the retina, causing damage and impacting retinal function. When this happens, the retina cannot differentiate images and the light hitting it. 
 

• Deposits

Sometimes, the vitreous fluid may collect crystal-like deposits that interfere with light as it transits from the front to the back of the eye. 

What Are the Symptoms of Floaters?

The most common symptoms of floaters are small shapes in your vision that seem like strings of floating material. They could look like knobby or dark specks; if you try to focus on them, they move from your line of vision. You will notice them better when you look at a bright light or a plain background like a white sheet of paper or the sky. 

When Should You See a Doctor?

Eye floaters should not be a cause for alarm, especially if you only see them occasionally. However, you should consult an eye doctor if they impact your ability to see clearly. Floaters can occur due to a detached retina or a tear hemorrhage. If you notice the following symptoms, you must see the eye doctor immediately:
 

• Significantly more of them than usual

• Appear suddenly out of the blue

• If you experience light flashes in the same eye with the floaters

• You lose your peripheral vision

For more on the causes, symptoms, and treatment for eye floaters, visit Gregor Eye Care at our office in Overland Park, Kansas. Call (913) 685-0212​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ to book an appointment today.