Symptoms and causes of eye floaters

While staring at a plain background such as a blank wall or blue sky, you may see small specks or clouds that are floating in your vision field. Other shapes of these eye floaters can be strands and webs. Actually, these floaters are not objects in the air. They are tiny gel clumps or cells inside the vitreous that fills the inside of your eye, or exactly, the shadows of these floaters on the retina.

These floaters inside your eye move along with your eye, resulting in a spot or shadow shape in your vision field. Other symptoms of eye floaters include light flashes or jagged lines, and headache. Light flashes can also be a warning sign of detached retina, since it is caused by the vitreous’ tug on the retina. This type of flashes occurs most on old people. Blood vessel spasm can also cause a flash form of jagged lines in both eyes. Headache and jagged lines are independent. Light flashes without headache are called ophthalmic migraine.

Vitreous in the eye begins to liquefy and contract and even forms clumps or strands inside the eye as people age. Floaters are caused by posterior vitreous detachment as the vitreous gel pulls away from the eye’s back wall. People with eye inflammation, myopia, cataract surgery or YAG laser surgery experience are prone to have eye floaters.

Sudden appearance of a great number of floaters accompanied by light flashes can be a sign of retinal detachment, which demands serious consideration. However, most floaters will never bring negative vision problems. They will disappear as time passes by.

Article Source:http://vision.firmoo.com/eye-diseases/symptoms-causes-eye-floaters.html

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