What are Eye Floaters and its Symptoms?
The vitreous humour is normally transparent liquid and fills the inner core of eyeball. Eye floaters are deposits in the vitreous humour of eye which have various size, shape and which also has different motility, different refractive index. When you move the floaters also move (hence the name “eye floatersâ€), which makes it difficult to see when you actually want to see them, as they go out of your visual field. In majority of cases the eye floaters slowly settle down to the bottom of the eyeball in vitreous humour, which is out of your visual field. But sometimes although only rarely, eye floaters may be numerous in numbers and disturb vision.
Most eye floaters are due to age related changes that occur in vitreous humour. The common age related change in vitreous humour is that it becomes more liquid. When vitreous humour becomes more liquid it causes clumping of microscopic fibers within the vitreous humour, which you may see as floaters as these clumps cast tiny shadows in retina.
Symptoms of eye floaters:
As floaters are suspended in the vitreous humour, they follow movements of the eyeball and drift slowly in the eye (in the field of vision or outside the visual field). Eye floaters may be seen as dark specks or transparent strings of material floating in your field of vision and when you try to look at them clearly, you can not see them as they follow the movement of eyeball. Floaters become visible because they are not properly fixed within your eye. Floaters become more noticeable when you are looking at single color background such as sky or at white wall.
As floaters tend to settle at the bottom, it may be possible to see them when turn your face down or lie down in supine position and remain in that position for sometime to allow the floaters to settle down to the bottom, which is front side of eye in prone position or when you turn your face down.
When to see your eye doctor?
Eye floaters are not uncommon and may remain inside eye for a lifetime without causing any problem in majority of individuals. But it is important to know when to consult a doctor if you have eye floaters. You should consult your eye surgeon when you notice a large number of new floaters, if you see flashes of light or lose your peripheral vision, as all of these may indicate retinal detachment, which is a grave medical emergency.
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