What Are Floaters?
Floaters are dark specks in the form of dots, circles, or lines that appear to move across your field of vision.
They are most noticeable when you are looking at a light-colored background, such as a clear blue sky or something that is white. Floaters come in many sizes and numbers, and they seem to move when you look in different directions.
What Causes Floaters?
In common terminology, floaters are tiny clumps of material that float about in the fluid inside your eyes, coming between the light entering your pupil and the retina at the back of your eye, and appear as shadows.
Most of the time, floaters are few and far between and a completely natural occurrence within your eyes. However, if a sudden rise of floaters appears in your vision, this can be the sign of anything from an eye infection to a serious condition such a retinal tear or retinal detachment.
What To Do If You See A Sudden Rise In Floaters
Your Eyes On Georgina Optometrist will perform a dilated eye exam, using special eye drops to cause your pupil to widen. Using the most advanced diagnostic and imaging techniques and technologies, your Optometrist will determine what is causing your floaters.
Treatment may begin during your exam, or in serious cases, specialist referral may be needed for things such as retinal tear/hole/detachment or diabetic retinopathy.
What Are Flashes?
Flashes are flashing lights that appear in your vision without any determined source, and almost always appear to be in the periphery of your vision. Of note, they usually only occur in one eye at a time, even with both eyes closed.
What Causes Flashes?
The vitreous, the gel-like fluid inside your eye that maintains the eyeball shape, can sometimes pull or push on the retina, depending on a wildly varying range of issues. However, as the vitreous pushes and pulls, your brain will see those motions as quick flashes of light.
A perfect example of what these flashes look like is to close your eyes and gently rub across the eyelid with your eye closed. The grey-white lights seen are what flashes look like.
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