have you noticed these weird spots or floaters in your vision well multiple times a day every eye
doctor gets asked that question what are these weird spots floating around in my vision so in
this video we're going to go over everything you need to know about visual floaters let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, with a show that keeps your eyes healthy
and your vision clear and i do videos all about the eyes including educational videos like this
one so make sure you're subscribed for my future videos now let's talk about these strange spots
in your vision the first thing i want to talk about are the actual symptoms or what people
actually notice when they see these floaters usually people describe their floaters in a few
different ways sometimes they can be dark black or gray specks sometimes they look like little
bubbles or clusters of bubbles or they can look like hairs or strands or strings in their vision
or maybe they're looking through cobwebs lots of strands and strings cobwebs in their vision and
the floaters will drift around your vision up and down left and right and they'll move with
eye movement as well so if you try and look at a floater it will dart off when you move your
eye now most of the time when people have noticed their floaters they notice them when they've been
driving maybe looking at the bright blue sky or and this might be tmi i don't get this one as much
but they would say that they noticed the floaters when they were sitting on the toilet going to the
bathroom and they were staring at their bright white wall and noticed their floaters but nowadays
i don't get that one as much because people are looking at their phones and not their wall
with that being said people also have told me they notice the floaters when they're looking at their
computer screen and sometimes their phone if they are looking at a bright background now the next
big question is what are floaters or what causes floaters the eyeball is filled with a clear gel
like substance called vitreous humor and this helps give the eyeball its shape it also acts
like a cushion to the eyeball and it also helps light get focused to the back of the eye now this
vitreous gel is made up of about 98, 99 percent water and about 2 percent type 2 collagen
and that's what makes it this jelly structure this jelly or jello now naturally over time this
vitreous gel will start to degrade or liquefy this is called syneresis and it'll leave behind
these little fluid-filled pockets in there and sometimes you actually see those as the floaters
these little spots in your vision but it'll also leave behind these little lines lines separating
from the liquid and the collagen that gets left behind and these hard edges are what you see as
little hairs or strings or cobwebs in your vision now usually when you can see these floaters either
the pockets of fluid or the strands of collagen is usually when you're looking at a bright background
bright white wall bright blue sky and it casts a shadow to the back of your retina and that's what
you're actually seeing you're seeing the shadow of these little bits inside the gel of your eye
now who usually gets floaters this degradation of the vitreous or the gel of the eye is age related
and completely normal the older you get the more the vitreous will liquefy and cause floaters in
fact by the time you reach 80 years old or older you have a 66 percent chance of having floaters
in your vision now that being said younger people can also get floaters as well especially if you're
nearsighted or myopic meaning distance vision is blurry close-up is clear when you're nearsighted
typically your eyeball is longer than it should be the axial length of the eye is longer and so that
leaves more space for that vitreous or that gel to cover and that makes it more prone to degradation
and this can cause you to have floaters when you're younger i noticed floaters when i was in
my 20s my floors really haven't gotten any worse but you can be young nearsighted and also see
floaters a few more things that can cause floaters obviously trauma to the eye or the head that
jostling of the eye can cause floaters as well as surgery to the eyeball can also cause floaters
now like i said before these types of floaters can be annoying but normal and harmless but but
floaters can sometimes be a sign of something more serious going on in the eyes so let's talk
about that when are floaters dangerous when should you be concerned about seeing floaters
the most common thing that you'll hear is if you see floaters with flashes of light in your vision
pretty much like lightning streaks or flashes off to the side of your eyes that could be a
sign of something bad happening in your eye now one thing to understand about the vitreous gel is
that it's actually attached to the retina of the inside of the eye almost attached kind of like
velcro and as that gel shrinks or degrades it will pull on the retina kind of like this glue
is pulling on my hand as i separate it and that pulling motion will excite the cells of the retina
the cells will send a signal back to the brain the brain will register it as light and make it think
that it's seeing light now if that vitreous gel is really attached to the retina sometimes it can
actually rip or tear the retina it'd be kind of like this glue ripping my hand open and that's
what we call a retinal detachment and that's why it's so important if you see new floaters
and flashes of light that could be a sign that the gel the vitreous gel actually
ripped the retina now if you have a retinal detachment it is very important that you catch
that early on if that retina continues to rip if it continues to rip kind of like pulling the glue
off the hand it can potentially rip all the way down the entire retina and also rip off
the important part of your vision the macula the center of your vision if this happens then your
vision will be significantly decreased in fact you may go blind and this is where i want you to pay
attention very closely if you're experiencing any of these situations or scenarios or you're worried
about your floaters then you want to go in and see your eye doctor right now this is an actual
eye emergency you can get in today if it's the weekend saturday sunday monday night at midnight
you can get in right now they will see you it's that important because you want to keep your eyes
alive now if you're just experiencing new floaters maybe you're not experiencing flashes of light
but you feel like you have new floaters that you haven't had before that's also an emergency you
want to go in there and get them checked out by your eye doctor there are some people that will
have new floaters but maybe not notice flashes of light in their vision and it could still be a sign
of a retinal detachment sometimes a retinal hole where just a small piece of the retina
gets plucked off also important to get it checked out also if you notice a curtain or a darkening
coming from the side of your vision that's also a dead giveaway of a retinal detachment and you
need to get it checked out right now now the first common question we get is what are these floaters
the second common question is what can be done about the floaters now talk about what can be
done about the typical normal floaters and bear with me not a lot of people like the answer to
this question the most common answer and probably the one you're not going to like is that we'll
monitor or observe the floaters a lot of times the floaters will settle down lower in the eye
outside of the vision or the brain will learn how to filter the floaters out so you won't notice
them as much as time goes on and i see that a lot with patients i'll see patients that notice their
floaters and then maybe i'll see them a year later ask them about their floaters and they'll say oh i
totally forgot that i had flutters i don't really notice them as much and we'll compare pictures of
their eyes side by side where we could see the floaters and they'll be almost exactly the same
so in those cases a lot of times the brain learns how to filter the floaters out or they
just stopped paying attention to those floaters the next possible treatment for your vitreous
floaters can be pretty invasive and risky and it's something called a vitrectomy pretty much you'll
have a surgeon go into your eye and suck the gel the vitreous out of your eye bring the floaters
with it and replace it with a new fluid and as you can imagine this procedure can be pretty
risky can have a lot of complications with the surgery and so most surgeons are hesitant to do
this type of procedure the floaters would have to be significant would have to be decreasing
your vision or decreasing your quality of life to warrant the risk or warrant the complications the
possible complications of a vitrectomy the next possible treatment is the use of a yag
laser you can have a surgeon laser your larger floaters into smaller not as noticeable pieces
which can help your symptoms of seeing these visual floaters now a lot of people ask me about
natural remedies of floaters or maybe eye drops medications or diets that can help
get rid of your floaters and i plan on making a full video specifically on that topic because i
get that question all the time but bottom line is there's nothing really concrete or proven to get
rid of floaters but make sure that you keep an eye out for one of my future videos coming out
if you have any questions at all make sure that you comment them below i am there to answer any
questions that i can hey thanks for watching the video make sure you hit that like button if you
found value from this video i'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, focusing on you and your eyes stay
focused make sure you check out my other videos right there and i'll see you in the next video
yeah i see my floaters looking at this bright white light shining on me i have
a few hair strands a couple of them look like little grape clusters little specks
pretty much the same ones i've always had