What Causes Eye Floaters? Eye Doctor Explains

so have you ever had those really annoying little translucent or grayish black or even dark black floating things all over your vision well if you're trying to figure out if those are dangerous or what you can do about them keep watching [Music] hello everyone i am dr rupa wong board certified ophthalmologist and on this channel we talk about eye surgery eye health all the things that you can do to keep your vision as healthy as possible so today we're talking about floaters you know them those really pesky translucent gray black whatever color they are they are annoying and they disrupt your normal vision and can be very debilitating so all a floater is is the vitreous gel in your eye starting to liquefy and even degenerate if you will the vitreous is 98 water the other two percent is macromolecules it's collagen and hyaluron so when you are born your vitreous gel is clear of course but as we age there are structural changes that occur in the vitreous gel this causes the gel to liquefy from dissociation of the collagen from the hyaluron and then what happens is that the collagen fibers begin to aggregate and then when they're floating inside the vitreous jelly they start to cast shadows on your retina and that is what you see now most people are most symptomatic when they are looking at a really light colored background either a white wall or looking up at the sky and that's when you really find those floaters the most annoying they might resemble tiny multiple spots or even spider web like collections sometimes you can even see a large black floater which might actually mean something a little bit different so there are primary floaters and secondary floaters primary floaters are the floaters that occur just as a consequence of aging or of even being nearsighted so if you are younger you might notice floaters because you are nearsighted secondary floaters are the kind that are consequenced from inflammation inside the eye i treat a lot of kids and adults with uveitis which is inflammation in the eye and one of the first things that the adults will notice is floaters but that's a really different kind of floater it's a sudden onset it's not something that they've had for a substantial period of time and those floaters might be related to rheumatologic diseases or collagen vascular disorders or different types of diseases again that's more related because of the inflammation it could be from infection but those are secondary floaters now another type of floater is called a posterior vitreous detachment and what happens is as you age the vitreous starts to separate from the inner lining of the retina that process takes about four to six weeks and that can cause a floater that's a little bit different in nature it can cause a big black fluid or almost like a cockroach or a fly that's uh buzzing across your field of vision people are always trying to swat them away but there's nothing to swat away that's a little different than the translucent clear or gray type floaters that represent the collagen fibers so what are the causes of floaters as i mentioned before sometimes it's just aging 70 percent of adults over the age of 70 have a posterior vitreous detachment but it may also be a consequence of nearsightedness now why does nearsightedness or myopia cause floaters well most people that are myopic have a longer than normal eye that's called your axial length i talk a lot about axial length progression when we're trying to prevent nearsightedness from worsening in kids so we actually have ways to treat that now but for adults sorry there's no way to treat it and your eyeball is just a little bit longer than everyone else's and so the gel of your eye everything is just stretched a little bit more than in an eye which is not nearsighted and so that's why near-sighted individuals are a little bit more at risk for floaters and have them at a younger age than people that are either farsighted hyperopic or emmatropic don't need glasses at all other reasons for floaters are if you've had cataract surgery or sometimes even trauma to the eye can cause floaters and then there's a whole bunch of different reasons that can cause a different kind of a floater like hemorrhage or bleeding in the eye which might be visualized as a floater people that have diabetes that is not really well controlled that can actually cause bleeding inside your eye and you might notice that as a floater if you're hit in the eye you might have a hemorrhage as well there's a lot of different reasons to have a vitreous hemorrhage which can also present as a floater now if you're having the following symptoms then this might be a sign that your floater is not just a regular floater but might be associated with a retinal tear or a detachment so if you have a sudden onset of the black floater accompanied with flashing lights a change in your vision a shadowing in the periphery or like a curtain falling down over your vision then you really need to see your ophthalmologist right away because those are signs and symptoms of a retinal detachment or a retinal tear and the reason this happens is because as that vitreous separates from the inner lining of the retina it's very easy for it to tug and pull a piece of the retina it's typically attached in three different points and it can pull a little piece of the retina causing a retinal tear if fluid gets underneath inside that tear then a detachment can occur and so time is really of the essence i'm not a retina specialist but i send it to my colleagues who are and it's really important to attach that retina as quickly as possible to preserve the integrity of the retinal cells and just preserve your vision so if you're having any of those signs and symptoms stop watching this video right now and please call your ophthalmologist now one popular misconception is that stress causes floaters it does not cause floaters stress might make you more aware of floaters but it certainly is not the cause for them so if you're reading any of those natural treatments for floaters and they tell you to meditate and de-stress those are all great things to do but it's not going to really have anything to do with the formation of the floater itself so what are the treatments for floaters unfortunately there are no home remedies or natural treatments for floaters a lot of the eye exercises that i've read online are really about just getting your brain to adapt to the floater which is great if it works for you and that's usually what happens is that your brain eventually starts to ignore the floater and stops paying attention to it for most people the floaters stop being problematic but it can take more than a few weeks it can take months or even years for a lot of individuals to start to ignore those floaters now other treatment options include a yag vitrolysis which is a laser type surgery which is used to pulse bursts of energy and vaporize the floaters and a third treatment option is actually surgery or a pars plane of vitrectomy done by your retina surgeon and what they do is remove the entire liquid vitreous the gel from the inside of the eye and i'm going to talk more in depth about both of those treatments in a separate video because there's a lot to unpack right there but those are treatment options though we don't tend to recommend the yag vitrolysis or the pars plane of attract me unless someone is really really miserable and that's because those surgeries are not without risks it's not something that just melts away the floater without any cause for concern i mean there's always the potential for blindness whenever you do any kind of surgery laser or otherwise but you guys should know that it is a treatment option and we'll talk more about it in that other video so there you go that's what a floater is in general they are not dangerous but if you're having the accompanying signs and symptoms of flashes loss of vision a curtain falling down over your vision or any kind of shadowing it certainly can be vision threatening and you do want to see your ophthalmologist right away and please do me a favor and subscribe to the channel like and comment on this video so that i know what type of content to produce for you and once you subscribe then you know you're getting all the best eye health information right away thanks so much for watching you guys and until next time it was good to see you i'm dr rupa bye

Channel: Dr. Rupa Wong

Views: 40,336

Keywords: eye floaters, eye floaters treatment, what causes eye floaters, dr rupa, ophthalmologist

Id: JKvBw4jtlsA

Length: 8min 42sec (522 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 15 2022