How to Get Rid of Eye Floaters - Eye Floaters Treatment Explained

all right so how do you get rid of eye floaters and what options do you have for eye floaters treatment today we're going to be talking about everything that has to do with eye floaters including what if Florida's are what causes eye floaters when it's an absolute emergency what sort of symptoms are you happening that are happening to you that you absolutely should call a doctor right away and then we'll talk about the different treatment options that your doctors may be able to offer you whether it be a surgical treatment or a medical or maybe even a vitamin option that's available right now we'll even talk about some of the new research that has come out in the last year about future treatments that I know when I've talked with other doctors they haven't even read this research so it's going to be exciting and I'm ex what I really want to hear from you I think is first how long have you had floaters because myself I've had them since I was in my early 20s and that's a big deal when it comes to knowing how we treat floaters is how long you've had them so let me know in the comments what like what kind of floaters you've been noticing are they big hairy are they big hairy the cobweb ones or are they small little Speckles that are moving around now I do want to say thank you to all of our channel members because they make videos an education like this possible so thank you very much now when it comes to I floaters we asked we kind of question like what are floaters what are these little spots right we see them as these kind of drifting spots that move around side to side like right now in front of my computer screen if I look left look right I'll see these little drifting spots back and forth and they they get really annoying right again I've had them since my early 20s and part of that is because I'm really nearsighted and sometimes people get these just due to age and we'll kind of get into that now we call them different things some people just call them floaters eye floaters is kind of the most common term in the Eye Care world we call them vitreous floaters or in literature we'll see them as symptomatic vitreous opacities or svos that's what we'll write in your uh like your medical chart sometimes now when we look inside the eye here on the one side of the screen that's literally a photo of what a floater looks like when we look inside the eye and then this is a digital rendition you can see these little dark spots behind the floaters those are the shadows and that's why you see those drifting spots because the floaters are inside the eye casting a shadow onto the retina now when you think about what floaters are there are these pieces of collagen that are suspended in this gel this gel inside the eye that we call the vitreous humor now this vitreous humor is mostly water about 99 water but there's little chunks uh or a mesh work of collagen hyaluronic acid and then a proteoglycan called chondroitin sulfate now we get floaters for a couple of different reasons but the most notable cause is age and right now if you see here um under the exhibit a you you see a scan of a fetus's eye during development at 33 weeks and you can see how beautiful that vitreous Gel looks it is uniform but as we get older at age 59 at under B here in this photo you can see the strands of collagen starting to separate and some liquefactions some almost liquid that's developing inside of the gel and then finally at 88 years you can see large pockets of fluid and these strands of collagen that have separated and they've bunched up and so when you look side to side and you see little hair like cobweb strands that's what you're seeing now you may think you may be younger you may be young like I am and you're still seeing these strands in these spots and part of that is because if you're very nearsighted if you're myopic you're going to be more likely to see them and part of that is because as you become more nearsighted your eyeball stretches it stretches out but the gel really doesn't move with it and so because of that and some other factors then you start to have this breakdown of this mesh work of collagen fluid and all these other parameters inside the gel the reason why it's age is connected with it has to do with oxidative stress I have that down there and so some of the research is looking at ways that we can slow down oxidative stress within the eye but that leads to a breakdown and disorganization of the collagen so part of this process of developing floaters is that this gel breaks down but the gel is Loosely attached to the retina in the back of the eye as we have here in this picture as this gel is attached to the retina in the back of the eye it begins to separate it begins to let go of its attachment to the retina and we call that a posterior vitreous detachment and as it pulls away it's most densely attached to the optic nerve in the back of the eye that's the white spot at the far end there and when it pulls off it pulls off in a big circle and in the eye clinic we can see that Circle in the back and we call that a Weiss ring and so if you've ever noticed a large floater like not just little spots drifting around but one really big like asteroid of a floater and you look side to side and it gets in your way that's probably what you're seeing is that Weiss ring that large chunk that is pulled off from the optic nerve curve now there's a couple other symptoms that you should be aware of most notably are flashes of light if you all of a sudden just noticed a hundred floaters all at one time and you see a bright flash of light and they can be uh like a bright flash off in the corner of your vision like someone took a camera flash or like my Aunt recently she had these new flashes of light and she described them as almost like a lightning bolt going side to side even in her vision it doesn't have to be straight up and down like the way we think of lightning you can get a flash of light going side to side and if you have any of these symptoms especially with a darkening of your vision like a curtain of darkness is coming down from the down from up above or coming in from the sides or rising up from the floor that is a sign of emergency that's a sign that you need to even stop this video stop watching call your doctor uh to hopefully get scheduled within the next day or two because that could be a sign of what we call a retinal tear or Detachment the whole process of the gel pulling off in the back of the eye about 95 of the time it goes by just smoothly without any problems but there's that five percent of time where when the gel peels from the retina it tugs a little bit on the retina like loose wallpaper and can create a small tear and if that happens fluid can seep behind the tear and then it can start lifting the retina off the back of the eye and that is a cause of concern because people can lose permanent vision and go blind from that so again do not wait for it it's better to get it checked out even just to be you know have um some kind of calming of your nerves to know that everything's okay and so again if you're seeing bright flashes of light with new floaters new dark spots in your vision best to go get seen sooner rather than later now you're thinking okay we want to hear about water treatments what are options for floaters maybe you're not like that you're not having this bright flashlight or maybe you've already seen your doctor and they've verified everything's okay and you still have these floating spots they're annoying you you can't see you can't function they're bothering you what can you do so here are our options the first option is something called a vitrectomy this is probably the oldest solution that we've had it's a surgical procedure where you have to go into the operating room and you're usually a retina specialist will perform this procedure where they siphon off the fluid this is uh a procedure that is a little bit more complicated and I'd say most surgeons don't really like to do for floaters and we'll get into that but looking into the more recent published research just in the last few years there is about a 90 satisfaction rate with this procedure the results of complications because everyone wants to know that and I think it's important that doctors if you're going in to see a retina specialist or even just talking to your primary care doctor the concern is you know all the side effects or the complication risks so again recent Publications show that endoptomitis is about one percent risk that is an infection of the eye it is probably the most devastating uh ocular issue that all eye doctors fear as an infection of the eye and we call that end optimitus it's about a one percent chance or a little bit less retinal detachment occurring sometime within the next year is about 1 to 1.5 and developing a tear swelling of the the retina called macular edema or bleeding or Hemorrhage in the retina is about a two three percent chance during that procedure and then cataracts so if you've never had cataract surgery before do you still have what we call uh your fake lens or a crystalline lens that you were born with that lens will on a third of the cases again this is the most recent reports a third of the cases will develop a cataract within 12 to 16 months so most doctors I've talked to when they have a vitrectomy they just all surgeons will just tell the patient you're going to have to have cataract surgery at some point in the near future so it says one through the cases but realistically you're going to develop cataracts much faster after a vitrectomy if you've already had cataract surgery then you're in luck then you don't have to really worry about that but thankfully cataract surgery is very simple uh in terms of success it is one of the most successful surgeries that I think have ever been developed in the world of medicine and it's um it for most people do they love getting cataract surgery I don't want to oversell it but if you talk to most Eye Care Providers and most people have had cataract surgery they have really good outcomes outside of vitrectomy laser vitriolysis has been growing over the last 15-20 years this is a procedure where your doctor uses a what's called a gag laser and it literally plays the asteroids video game and shoots the floaters inside of the eye the some of the things that's cool about it is that there is a very good uh 75 Improvement rate in the re in the literature and it's uh typically better for solitary uh floaters rather than diffuse so if you have a large PVD that large floater in the center of your vision that keeps coming back and forth and bothering you it's going to be a lot easier for your surgeon to hit that and remove it but if you have a lot of small spots small little spotty floaters that just drifting out it's a little bit more difficult for them to clear that out a hundred percent so I think that's why um with with getting vitrectomy you have a 90 satisfaction rate because they can remove all the floaters where with laser vigilysis it's about a 75 Improvement rate and that's because as they can only remove the big floaters there's also the location of the floater something your doctor has to think more about if the floater's too far forward in the eye the laser could cause a it actually creates a small plasma burst inside the eye that moves anterior and if you have an implant in the back of the eye like implant in the eye from cataract surgery or if you still have a fake lens like again that you're born the crystalline lens you were born with that energy could hit the lens either cause a cataract or it could pit the implant from cataract surgery and so your doctor doesn't want to go too far forward and if they do go too far back they could hit the retina so again they have to be very specific about where they're aiming inside the eye complications for laser vitrolysis are very low in fact the they're they're so low it's like one to two cases being reported of cataracts eye pressure glaucoma retinal to tears attachments and Rental hemorrhages are also very low and I do have some resources at the bottom of the slide and we'll have those in the video description for any other eye care nerds out there who want to read into this something that's quite fascinating more recently though are gold nanoparticles this was a research publication uh that came out in just 2021 where they tested on rabbits but gold nanoparticles so nanotechnology has been kind of in the probably in the news for like the last maybe 15 20 years but they used gold nanoparticles that would attach onto the collagen these large floaters and then they would use another type of light similar to the yag laser but at a thousand times less energy and they were able to shine it on the gold particles and it would get them to vaporize and because they were attached to the collagen it would vaporize the collagen and the floaters along with it again this was tested in rabbit eye models and I haven't seen any Publications or research that's pursuing this still but the fact that they've published this and it seems possible it may be in the works we just haven't heard about it yet so this is something we are looking forward to because with a thousand less energy a thousand times less energy that means it's way safer and less likely to cause any other complications like we just mentioned before so what are other treatments because those are the two Surgical vitrectomy and yag laser Victory lysis those are probably the two most common you'll ever hear doctors maybe mention but there's some other research and other cool things that are available now first off uh if you've been following our channel here on Dr ile's back in 2019 I posted a video on pineapple as being a Flo a possible cure for floaters and that was based off of this research article um looking at pharmacological vitrolysis of vitreous floaters by three months of pineapple supplement now let me know if you've watched that video already uh when that that study came out it is a pilot study and it's not perfect there's some errors in it but it did raise an eyebrow for at least pursuing an option other than surgery and what they were looking at was pineapple is having a protease called bromelain and bromelain and quoted in their research was that it's mainly responsible for complete debridement and dissolving the overgrowth connective tissues so they were trying to see if they could naturally give people food source of bromelin to try and uh hopefully hoping that this would cross the blood red retinal barrier and get into the eye and start dissolving these collagen bundles of fibers call causing the eye floaters well if you've watched that video or read any of the comments I love reading it because I do get feedback and some people have told me they've tried it and they've had success I've had also a lot of people say that it did not help them at all and let us know in the comments if you've eaten pineapple and noticed anything similar to those sort of results I know for most doctors we read that we're linking okay there's a little suspicion it wasn't the best most well written it was just a pilot study however just in 2022 in November we had a new publication kind of part two wasn't the same authors but they did a three-month double-blind trial in uh and they did it in a clinical trial using uh basically a vitrolysis through supplement of mixed fruit enzymes four patients with oculus Lotus and vitreous hemorrhage-induced floaters and I did dug into the research a little bit more and figure out what are they meaning by mixed fruit enzymes and it turns out they specifically were using 190 milligrams of bromelain of a of a supplement of bromelin 95 milligrams of propane and 95 milligrams of Bison which are basically comes out of enzymes that you find in papaya pineapple Ginger and kiwi and what they ended up finding and again it wasn't a perfect study there are some translation errors this was out of Taiwan uh but what they found was that after three months the individuals who took higher dosages they took up to three capsules had almost a 70 percent Improvement in their floater symptoms uh I did want to call out if you look at this graph that I have in there this is directly from their publication it says none at the top for how many capsules they took a day but they did technically receive a placebo of vitamin C which I would argue is maybe not truly a placebo they also when it lists 40 there at the start under before that's before they started that's how many eyes head floaters not how many people had floaters so often these these uh people entering the study had floaters in one eye as it can like as the kind of the control floater oh not the control they had floaters in one eye but not floaters in the other eye and if you look at the second month on that none line they eventually had 43. so people eventually gained floaters in the eye that originally didn't have floaters but then eventually it decreased again on the third month they the authors went into trying to explain or theorize of how this works and they believe it's kind of working as a Scavenging effect or basically an anti-um it works at reducing kind of inflammation and oxidative stress within the eye now again vitamin C I said maybe wasn't a best choice for a placebo because as a scavening effect of free radicals the kind of light blue line is Vitamin C that's pretty high it's almost the same as bromelin but the purple line at the very top is the mixed fruit enzyme the combination of the papain the faisin and bromelain so it had almost they argue that it could be a synergistic effect or perhaps a cumulative effect just to give an Insight from a doctor's perspective when we a lot of doctors I've talked to about these sort of research studies we learn in school that the blood retinal barrier is very tight there's what's called tight junctions within the eyeball on the retina and that prevents fluid leakage from getting in from the retina from the blood to get into the retina and potentially passing into the vitreous so for a long time a lot of doctors believe that it was impossible for any sort of medication or supplement to pass into the vitreous through that method however as more research is coming out there seems to be maybe that that was a falsity and now we're learning a little bit more so what else can you take because right now that mixed fruit enzyme is not available [Music] these if you've had success with it or if your doctors have ever mentioned it it is fairly recent there's publication I personally want to see more research studies on it but I think as far as safety is concerned and if my patients ever wanted to consider trying it as long as they just know that you know there's only one study out right now we'd like to see more maybe it'll work maybe time will tell but if it's something that floaters are really bugging you you don't want to go through surgery or maybe it's not an option for you perhaps this is an option but as with all supplements I do recommend you talk with your doctor to make sure they know what you're taking in case it potentially mixes with any other medication you're taking or other supplements you can overdo supplements and so that's why I always say Don't just take my word for it read the study yourself talk to your doctor it's going to be the best option for you but again I have done that video and it goes a little bit more into the depth of the findings of that research study as well as what zinc and all the ingredients in there how they play with the eye and how they believe that helps with the floaters the other really interesting research I found When I Was preparing for this and looking more into floaters was just published in October of 2022 here and this was out of China and again when you read some of these studies uh especially when they're a foreign language that's translated into English because English was my primary language sometimes there's translation errors and it's sometimes hard to read this was again a it was done through a research laboratory designing a functional eye dressing and this is a topical kind of like a treatment transdermal through the skin to treat the eye which is really kind of something different I have never heard of somebody trying to do and their idea was that by using oxygen and hydrogen to increase blood oxygen and fight inflammation and sell death within the eye to kind of support the gel not just the gel structures of the eye but other components potentially the retina the sclera all components of the eye so very interesting uh and they even broke down in the research what kind of what they used and where they got it from I couldn't find it I don't think it's available for for public sale but at least for research purposes this is what was in them using sodium hydroxide aluminum powder and some oxalates but they followed 28 patients for four months and they found about a 70 to 83 percent Improvement which against very small study but rather interesting results and so at least raises an eyebrow for potential Futures research and study uh but again if you read that research yourself and I do have that link in the description below I question because they didn't talk about how long per day people were using this eye dressing they also didn't really go two depth too in-depth about complications they listed some complications but they didn't really break it down the most scientifically at least again it could be some translation errors but it's at least it's very interesting and so maybe down the pipeline we may even have almost like a transdermal patch that you can wear on your eyelids to help support the health of the eye and even maybe treat floaters let me know if you think you would ever do um like a transdermal patch on your eyelid for a few months to help remove your floaters now that's really your options with eye floater treatment you have basically when you see a doctor they're going to be talking to you about your surgical treatments of vitriol of having a vitrectomy vitriolysis and I'll be honest most surgeons don't really like to do those procedures all that often because there is a risk even though the risk complications are very low from a doctor's perspective if your vision is still 20 20. even though you're seeing floaters it's largely been dismissed that floaters aren't that bad but over time especially laser venture lysis has gotten a lot more attention because it is a bit safer and we know some people really struggle with these annoying floaters in your vision right if they start bothering you from Reading you can't drive you don't feel safe you can't enjoy your daily quality life then perhaps doing these procedures may be a benefit um so outside of those things a lot of doctors will just say hey sorry get used to it and let me know if you've heard that before so there's a lot there now I want to transition over to our Q and A because I imagine a lot of you guys have questions I've been seeing a lot of great questions come in with our live q a I do want to First say thank you to all of our supporting members our channel members here uh we got a list of some of our channel members thank you so much because that makes Channel these sort of educational videos possible uh we also if you ever want to consider being a channel supporting member yourself they get choices they get some we put out some polls to see what type of topics we want to hear covered and they get priority uh in ants if they ask a question they get priority in these live q and A's but otherwise thank you again for supporting it and making worldwide education around the eyes possible uh and then it's a just a medical advice disclaimer I can't give medical advice in these q and A's uh I think it would be a disservice and an unethical for me to uh give medical advice without a thorough eye examination so I encourage you uh ask your questions I'll give it an educational format just so that everybody can learn more about what's going on in the eye but uh definitely see a local doctor about any diagnosis or getting appropriate treatment for your eyes and eye health conditions otherwise yeah I know you guys got a lot of good questions coming in let's see um what kind of questions if you guys want to put a question mark at the beginning and then a question mark at the end uh please let me know uh that'll be kind of a flag to me that so I can see your questions um I know right away I see a good question from Vanessa LaTour um Vanessa asks why do eye floaters fluctuate from day to day uh especially maybe when you're stressed out so a great question Vanessa thank you uh so a lot of people do notice floaters kind of fluctuate right you may see it move from side to side I've heard some people say that maybe it fluctuates with their blood sugars that's something that I don't think I've ever seen in research to really conclude but I've seen a lot of people uh in the comment sections of YouTube videos just anecdotally uh say that they've maybe noticed that one big factor that I know does play a role is just the brightness in your setting so people will notice the bli the kind of the black or brown spots of their floaters more on a blue background like a light blue sky or maybe a white background uh certainly on a computer screen because you have that vibrant light coming straight toward you and so that may play a role also the size of your pupil if your pupil size is really small again a bright computer screen your pupils are going to be smaller and that's going to cast a darker more dense Shadow directly onto the retina and so you may notice them more in fact a potential treatment option that we didn't really discuss because it doesn't get rid of floaters is using very low dose atropine there are a couple of Publications talking about a doctors prescribing low-dose atropine to dilate the pupil just about one millimeter and that potentially will cause a diffuse scattering of the shadow of the the floaters in the back of the eye it may at least reduce symptoms although it doesn't reduce it doesn't eliminate the floaters it will maybe reduce the symptoms it's something I've prescribed for a few patients it does have to be compounded often uh so it's a little bit more difficult to get uh and I've had about a 50 50 shot um some patients find it helpful and I've had some patients not find it helpful at all but really good question as far as stressed out um it's it's a little difficult to say why that may be however I think part of it can just be anxiety and if you're very anxious and you start seeing these spots drifting into your vision it's easy for us to hyper fixate on a problem that you have that you're seeing all the time especially if you're just really tense and that could not just be for floaters it can also be for dry eye is a common one or really just any sort of like you know eyelid twitch or other problems in your body if you're having like a sore leg or a sore knee and you're anxious maybe that pain might be Amplified for you almost psychologically so again great question thank you so much um we have a lot of great questions in here um I know I see Millie Jackson let's see does a dark vertical line classify as a floater or is it something else oftentimes floaters come in different shapes and forms so you can see them as a small little dots and people describe them as Nats I personally have a mix of them so I see the little spots but I do also see some almost hairs and some people have even described them as they look like amoebas or like a piece of bacteria or something like that but they can come in cobwebs in different kind of shapes and forms so not unlikely that if you have a dark vertical line could be a floater but again always talk to your local eye care professional to have their opinion and really kind of make verify that for you I see um billiard bomb um asking I have floaters the other day I got stuff in my eyes and it felt like I got punched very hard in the face oh my gosh that sounds sounds horrible uh is this normal okay should I avoid this in the future um it's tough to say what kind of stuff you got in your eyes I think anytime you get anything in the eye uh you do want to just make sure it gets flushed out correctly uh make sure your eyes are feeling better and then of course I always talk to a local Healthcare professional to get it evaluated especially if the eye burns if it's red if your vision's fluctuating at all definitely see a local Healthcare professional um it's it's stinks that you felt like you got hit in the face um I think any again any time you get something on the eye and you're seeing new changes in your vision talk to a local health care professional especially if it's not improving um very very quickly um this is a good one I think Smokey asks hey I sometimes see a dark spot spec randomly appear in my vision do you know what it is I also have double vision is that a sign of blindness Wows good questions um the dark spot randomly appearing division it's tough to say what that could be there could be many causes certainly in the terms of floaters it perhaps could be one because floaters again are suspended in the vitreous gel inside the eye and so when you look left and look right these little floaters that are suspended in the gel can drift around and that's why sometimes you see them and then sometimes you don't uh and so that potentially means that if you're seeing dark spots that could potentially be just a floater but again there are other potential causes and diseases that could be leading to seeing spots and again that's why I think if you haven't had your eyes checked by a doctor recently or talked about this specifically with your doctor um it's good to get the eyes checked just to make sure that everything isn't something else other than floaters double vision there's a lot of causes for double vision floaters typically don't cause it however as floaters peel off from the back of the eye and you develop that posterior of Interest Detachment there there is um kind of this this theory that the gel when it peels in the back of the eye creates little micro tears and this little micro tear can form a scar tissue which we call an epiretenal membrane and the scar tissue kind of bunches up and it becomes almost like a wrinkle in the back of the eye in fact another name for it is called macular pucker and when you have this puckering that can cause vision changes in as well as like a distortion in your vision and that can sometimes be confused with double vision usually this happens monocularly with one eye but it's something that we always screen for when people come in with new floaters so something to have checked out again uh double vision or diplopia can be caused by many things with the eye muscles with the convergence or movements of the eye and it gets really complicated but sudden double vision any problems with double vision is not something to be taken lightly you do want to see a doctor about that and again I think it's something better to have sooner evaluated rather than later so hopefully that helps thank you smokey um I know I see a lot of good questions coming in um JD asks I love that JD because I think of JD from Scrubs if you're a fan of Scrubs let me know I grew up watching that show um it says I see floaters there are none on the pictures of my eyes so it sounds like you've already gone in to an eye exam and there's they've maybe taken a photo of the back of the eye and they didn't see any floaters does that mean they're not severe and you've had them for 20 years so there are many different causes for spots in your vision some people do see small floaters and from an eye care perspective looking inside the eye sometimes we cannot see them they're so tiny uh they're so they're translucent it's very difficult to see them sometimes not just on photos but just during an examination and so if they are that small again most doctors surgeons would say you wouldn't be a very good candidate for surgical procedures because we can't really see them we can't verify that that's it and so there is that again people who even had vitrectomy it was like fully removed all of the gel inside the eye there's still 10 of people who aren't happy and so there is this question as all floaters caused by the gel inside the eye are they true floaters or is it something else neurologically that people are uh having that they're just not prop you know like maybe there's a breakdown of communication of just of how the patient describes it to the doctor and the doctor understands what the symptoms really are um but in most cases I would say that yes if you CA if you have floater symptoms of floaters and your doctor can't see it they're probably so small um they're not considered very severe uh hopefully that helps but yeah it's not uncommon to have Lotus for a long time so thank you uh I see Hannah asks can floaters cause dry eyes no uh quick easy one is that the floaters because they're inside the eye they are not related to dryness on the surface of the eye however if you have really dry eyes your vision can fluctuate and again you may be drawn to that irritation that blurred vision maybe frustrated by that and perhaps if you do have floaters along with dry eye you may be just becoming more hyper aware of all the visual problems that you may be experiencing but thankfully floaters are not directly connected to dry eye disease at all [Music] um oh this is another good one I I thank you for bringing this up Ruby asks uh saying that I've been getting a lot of visual Aura with disorientation no headache like a typical migraine Aura I do get floaters when this happens as well could this be an eye issue so it's a complication but Ruby you bring up a good point so again floaters like we're talking about in this video are vitreous floaters these are the floating spots that are stuck within the gel of the eye but we do experience other types of floating spots in our vision uh one of these is a migraine aura or a migraine with aura uh or the proper term is called a scintillating scotoma and if you've ever had a migraine before some people do have these uh flashing lights they usually small start off very small and then they grow and they become like a zigzag line for some people and it usually branches in both eyes because it's actually occurring in the visual cortex back in the back ear ahead where it's the the both eyes receive signals from the back of the eye or I'm sorry for the both eyes you receive signals from the back of the brain and so when you have that migraine starting in the visual cortex it radiates to both eyes and you end up seeing it in both eyes uh it is possible and there's some debate in the literature about retinal migraines and really what a retinal migraine is and this is when you have that visual Aura in just one eye but some people confuse like the floaters like we're talking about um like vitreous floaters with these occasional spots in division so thank you again for bringing that up because I think it's just good for people to hear that there's different spots that people can experience with their eyesight um it's good that you don't receive a headache because that's another possibility people can get a migraine Aura without the headache um it's interesting that you notice that you do get floaters maybe the dark spots with the migraine Aura and again it could just be that you're just more aware and sensitive of what's happening in eyesight but I don't think that there is a physiological connection between the eye and noticing more floaters during a migraine or experience um but again and if you haven't had the eyes examined in the last year or if you're having migraines frequently definitely against the a local eye care professional this again they can make sure everything's healthy um as far as James asks uh with high floaters how come most of the time you don't see them so again it depends on where the floaters are located inside the eye it depends on the size of your pupil and sometimes um it does just depend on uh the location yeah so if the floaters are further back in the eye versus further far forward or if they're off to the side or indirectly in front of you those are probably the biggest things that that relate to seeing the floaters um but really good question uh Ariba thank you for asking how do floaters go away with time so so the answer is yes and no there is oftentimes a diminished experience of floaters so if you just suddenly have a new experience of floaters uh it's still best to probably have your eyes checked at some point if you're having new floaters but over the first six months people do often report even with the first six weeks in my experience people notice at least a diminishing of their floaters and it's believed that you know it used to be thought or at least taught that maybe floaters drift down due to gravity or that they dissolve a little bit over time it's true the vitreous does liquefy and so perhaps they do diminish a little bit but large floaters usually don't go away they usually stay in the eye for most of the rest of your life but a lot of people notice decreased symptoms because you neuro adapt to them you almost just kind of get used to them being there and so neurologically and psychologically you're more just thinking about your day about what needs to get done uh you're thinking about what meal you're going to have this evening uh you're not really focused on those floaters anymore you just sort of live with them uh you tune them out right uh so usually in the first six months we notice that tuning out but and I should say that's one of the reasons why a lot of Surgeons won't do a vitrectomy or laser vitriolysis and the first six to 12 months used to be waiting at least six months before doing the procedures but oftentimes now in a more recent publication they recommended waiting at least 12 months after the beginning of floaters to see if they fully either resolve on their own either just a neuroadaption or to just try to avoid potential further complications of a retinal Terror Detachment and so they usually recommend six to 12 months after developing floaters before they consider one of those procedures so thank you so much hey Ray Ray I just want to say thank you so much um Ray Ray got a dollar in there thank you so much I appreciate that um can Ray Ray actually ask can you correct your eye stigma with surgery so uh eye stigma a lot of people will call that uh say it that way but it's properly written a stigmatism uh with astigmatism this is this is a a problem with your refractive error and we do have a video going into a stigmatism and I've addressed this in a little bit with some videos on on like Lasik uh astigmatism for most people is caused by a curvature change to the front surface of the eye I think of it like a basketball if you had a perfect round basketball most people's cornea the front surface of the eye isn't perfectly round imagine a five-year-old sitting on that basketball and it kind of squished a little bit that's kind of the shape of the cornea for most people and that astigmatism that shape causes blurred vision thankfully if you're interested in surgery there are options to correct astigmatism with LASIK or PRK with smile procedure I don't believe that they can do very high parameters I think there's more research looking into doing smile to correct for astigmatism but I see L if you have a really high prescription an intracolymer lens implant ICL has been approved at least in the United States for astigmatism correction now there are certain limitations if you have a really high amount of astigmatism it may not be the best options for you but thankfully that is potentially an option and so definitely talk to your local doctor and local surgeon about uh kind of your level of astigmatism is it stable are you a good candidate as well as complications because again we've talked about other videos of potential risks and complications with all forms of refractive surgery so really good question um as far as um you see Bobby asks a good question about when the gel is removed in surgery do you have to keep your head down for several weeks so that's a good question um so when when you have when you have a retinal detachment and I've done at least one other video on rental Detachment surgeries there's different types of surgery uh a doctor May perform one of those is when they put a what's called a Pneumatic retinopexy and but they they put a type of they've either put an oil or a type of gas inside of the eye and because they want to keep the retina attached to the back of the eye people often need to look downward and so they do have special pillows and like almost like massage tables with like a hole in it so that you can keep your head down for most of the day so that air or oil bubble pushes up on the on the retina and holds it in place again this really depends on the procedure um usually when they do a vitrectomy though and they're move the gel from the back of the eye it is a pretty complicated procedure but usually you aren't keeping your head down for several weeks just from a vitrectomy alone but again it depends on the procedure and what's going on with your eye so again it's actually local surgeon and they'll be able to explain everything to you so thank you and then as far as astigmatism I know we just have one more question here from hello um do astigmatism stop at any age um astigmatism can still is usually something that most young children are born with and then it starts to slow down within the first year or two of life then it can still change because the eyes of biological tissue can still grow Morphin change but it usually doesn't change as much as other parts of your refractive error the astigmatism can be complicated or worsened by people rubbing their eye and that leading to a condition called keratoconus which is a little bit outside of this discussion of this video but it astigmatism generally does slow down after the first views of life it can still progress and even change especially as you get older because the lens inside of the eye a cataract or the crystalline lens can start to age and slowly form a cataract and with the cataract formation the shape of the lens inside the eye changes and that can induce astigmatism for example myself the surface of my eye is relatively perfectly spherical it's like 42 all the way around um with that it means all of the astigmatism I have in my correction for glasses and contacts comes because the lens shape inside of my eye is kind of wonky and that creates astigmatism just to kind of give you a little bit more insight now I think this might be my last question for this evening again coming from Vanessa have I personally tried anything to help my floaters eating pineapple uh for example I personally um haven't really tried anything too hardcore myself I'm interested in maybe seeing what these uh the the new vitreous floater vitamin that has come out in the last year uh I'm thinking maybe if he's picking that up and seeing how I respond to it my floaters thankfully I've adapted to and they're pretty small I don't have a large Weiss ring or PVD yet so I personally am not bothered by it but thank you for asking um there are some days I think I notice it more than others but I again think it has to do with my pupil size and what I'm doing that day so thank you guys so much for being here and being part of this education if you want to know more about Eyes eye floaters surgical treatments or if you're concerned about having a retinal detachment make sure you do see a local eye care professional have that checked out but if you want to learn more about how those surgeries go along I'll put that video up here uh in a video so that you can click and watch that again thank you guys so much for being here have a great day

Channel: Doctor Eye Health

Views: 865,028

Keywords: how to get rid of eye floaters, how to get rid of eye floaters and flashes, how to get rid of floaters, eye floaters treatment, treatment for eye floaters, eye floater treatment, natural eye floaters treatment, get rid of eye floaters, get rid of eye floaters naturally, eye floaters no more, eye floaters relief, eye floaters explained, what are eye floaters, eye floaters, eye floater, floaters in the eye, flashes and floaters, doctor eye health

Id: OqCjxlY_H-A

Length: 46min 59sec (2819 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023