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What Are Eye Floaters?


Have you ever noticed specks, strings or cobwebs drift across your field of vision? If so, you’ve experienced what are commonly known as eye floaters. These are small spots, flecks, threads or blobs that appear to move through the field of vision. Most people experience them at some point in their lives and they can be a cause for concern. In this blog post, we’ll break down why these floaters form and how to treat them.

What Causes Eye Floaters?
Eye floaters occur when tiny pieces of debris float around in the vitreous humour (the jelly-like substance inside the eyeball) which causes shadows to fall on the retina. The most common cause is age-related changes which occur in the vitreous humour as we get older, making it more likely that materials will collect there and cast shadows on our retinas. Other causes include injury to the eye or inflammation caused by infection such as uveitis.

Treating Eye Floaters
In most cases, eye floaters do not need treatment and they should eventually fade away on their own over time. However, if they become particularly bothersome or interfere with your vision then laser treatment may be an option to remove them from your line of sight. Laser treatment works by breaking up the particles causing the floaters and dispersing them into smaller pieces so that they are no longer noticeable when looking at a distant object. This procedure is typically done under local anaesthetic in an outpatient setting and results are usually seen within a few days after treatment has taken place.

We hope this blog post has shed some light on what eye floaters are and why they happen. While most cases of eye floaters do not require any particular treatment and should eventually fade away on their own, it is still important to seek medical advice if you are concerned about them or if they become particularly bothersome or interfere with your vision. If necessary, laser treatment may be an option to help remove them from your line of sight but please contact Lentz Eye Care today to schedule an examination before undergoing any treatments. Preventative and routine eye exams are important to maintaining good eye health!

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