so chances are if you're watching this video you are experiencing a
really large eye floater in your vision it's usually drifting from side to side
it can get in the way of seeing things it can be really annoying and it can even be
scary if it's something new for you and i care we call that a posterior vitreous detachment
and in this video i'm going to break down posterior vitreous detachment symptoms and
then ultimately different treatments for what's going on that's today's video let's take a look
hello and welcome this is dr Allen here from the Doctor eye health show helping you learn all about
your eyes and your vision if you're new here to the channel and you like seeing your best and
taking care of your eyes then consider hitting that subscribe button down below and turning on
the bell so that you don't miss any of my future videos now again today we're talking about large
eye floaters which we call a posterior vitreous detachment now there's a lot of different types
of little normal eye floaters out there but this is a really large floater and it gets in the way
of your view and if it's something that you're just newly experiencing it can be associated with
other symptoms that can be kind of frightening so let's go over to the whiteboard and we'll
break down exactly what's going on inside the eye all right so here's a drawing of the eye just so
that we understand what's going on inside when we have these large floaters the front surface
of the eye is called the cornea that's the front window to the eye behind that you have the iris
which makes the color of your eye your brown eyes your green eyes or blue eyes behind that you have
the crystalline lens which as we age this crystal lens starts to crystallize eventually starts to
form a yellow color and then ultimately it becomes cloudy and we call that a cataract
then behind the eye in the far back you have this orange membrane here which is called the retina
basically the large satellite in the back of the eye that helps pick up light information
and that light information gets then sent down the optic nerve to the back your brain and that's what
helps you see now here in the middle of the eye it's blank but in reality the eyes filled with a
fluid called the vitreous humor about 99 of this vitreous humor is water but about one percent of
this vitreous humor is made of type 2 collagen and that makes the fluid more of a gel like substance
so that helps hold the shape of the eye now as we age this gel substance starts to break down
and it starts to form these little clumps these small little specks and small little
hair strands that most people even at a younger age can sometimes see these little specks drift
back and forth usually not too bothersome but they can be a little annoying you may notice
them more if you're out looking at a blue sky maybe you're looking at a blanket of snow or
staring at your computer screen you may see these small little typical eye floaters more often
now seeing these tiny little floaters is different from having a really large floater and usually we
call those large floaters a posterior vitreous detachment or a pvd for short in the eye clinic
now posterior vitreous detachment symptoms usually include a sudden large floater in the
center of your vision it can oftentimes come with flashes of light off to the sides of your vision
it can cause blurred vision and for some people even start seeing this dark kind of cloud
or curtain come in from the side of their vision sometimes from the ceiling or coming up from the
floor and that can be a little bit more concerning and let's go over why now again as we age this gel
inside the eye starts to become less of a gel and more of a liquid but this gel sits inside of a
bag called the vitreous cortex which is a little bit more dense gel material and it's physically
attached to the retina in the back of the eye i drew the vitreous cortex here a little bit
separated just so that you can see it better but it is in contact with the retina and it's almost
stuck together like it would have velcro stuck together now what happens again is that as we
age there's some breaks in this vitreous cortex that occur and the liquid ends up seeping behind
these little breaks and behind the vitreous cortex and that fluid ends up causing the velcro between
the gel and the retina to start separating and peeling apart so you have this bag that starts
to pull away from the retina itself and that's the beginnings of a posterior vitreous detachment so
this empty space here is now filling with the same fluid that was once inside of the general gel bag
now what happens more so when you start developing that large floater in your
vision because right now you may not even notice uh any sort of visual symptoms changing with
just this small vicious detachment that's going on right now but when the gel fully gets down
to the optic nerve here the gel is more firmly attached to the optic nerve there's more gel
substance around it so when that plugs off it can usually plug off pretty tough and then you start
to see this really large almost crescent moon or large circle inside of the back of the eye in
your eye doctor we'll notice that and i'll throw up a picture here of what that looks like your
eye doctor will look inside and you'll see this nice round circle and we call that a weiss ring
in fact we call it a white spring because the gel material that is forming that ring looks kind of
white when we look inside the eye and that large bundle of material that's floating around inside
the eye there that's your large floater and yes funny enough there are people who name their large
floaters certainly let me know if you guys have a name for your lodge floater that occasionally
comes into your field of view and you're just like oh yeah there's carl or something like that let me
know what name you have for your eye floater if you've named it now the other thing that's
really important outside of just recognizing what this large floater is is what the other symptoms
that you could be having those flashes of light or if your vision's starting to get blurry or
heaven forbid you're starting to see that dark cloud coming in from the side those are usually
hinting at something a little bit more sinister that could be going on inside the eye
now when this gel peels away from the back of the eye it occasionally is really densely
like stuck to parts of the retina and when it's tugging when it's starting to peel away
it'll have some traction and it'll tug on the retina and your brain doesn't know what to do
with that doesn't know what kind of sense it's not like a normal visual signal so your brain sees it
as just a flash of light so that's what's going on when you see those flashes off to your side
now usually when this peels away nothing happens you see the flashlight and it's done
however for about five percent of people that are having this you can also create a retinal hole
a tear or a retinal detachment in the back of the eye and that's a lot more serious
now usually when you're starting to have those symptoms if something is changing with the retina
such as a retinal hole a tear or something like a retinal detachment you may start to have visual
symptoms such as not just little floaters this large floater but you could have blurred vision
and then ultimately that dark curtain could mean that the retina itself is also detaching meaning
the fluid is now getting behind the retina and the retina is starting to lift off from
the back of the eye if you are just experiencing new symptoms this large floater blurred vision
any flashes of light it's important that you maybe stop this video and call your eye doctor and get
scheduled to be seen because catching those sort of symptoms early on and catching that if it is a
terror detachment early it's better treated and has better results if it's caught early on so
again don't hesitate we see this all the time give your eye doctor a call and get seen now let's just
say this is a recent change for you you go in you see your eye doctor and they say yes you have this
large weiss ring you have a posterior vitreous detachment they will probably tell you the exact
same thing we just went over in this video however they'll usually have you back in about four to six
weeks it's fairly standard practice and eye care whether it be optometry or ophthalmology
they'll have you back to dilate your pupil they'll look inside once again and they'll do that about
four to six weeks later because studies have reported around a two to five percent risk
of still finding a hole a tear or detachment at about a month later in addition sometimes this gel
peeling away from the back of the eye can cause other little problems and your doctor may want to
further evaluate the retina for like small little micro wrinkles or changes that could be causing
problems with your vision i know at our clinic one time a patient missed their fall appointment
at one month and then they ended up calling two days later because they all of a sudden started
having vision loss and yes they ended up having a small tear in the far edge of their eye and it was
leading toward a retinal detachment but thankfully everything was caught they had surgery and things
went well and if you want to learn a little bit more about retinal detachment i do have a video
going over retinal detachment and the different treatment options for those and you can check that
out by clicking or tapping the screen up here to the side or if you want to learn a little
bit more you can check that out in the video description below as well now as far as treatment
for this large eye floater this posterior vitreous detachment this weiss ring i want to go over that
next but first again let me know in the comment section how you're liking this video so far if you
have any other further questions about how this posterior vitreous detachment develops i'd love
to get back to you so again drop those comments in the section below but as far as treatments for
this posterior vitreous detachment right now and i care there's generally three different
treatments the first one is we just watch most people who come into the clinic that see me for
this condition we tell them hey this is what's going on we'll see you back in four to six weeks
at that point most people even say that they don't see them as often sometimes just due to gravity
this disc large floater will drift out of your field of view and you won't see it as much or your
brain neuro adapts to this presence of this large floater and again you just don't see it as often
however for those other few cases i know some people out there are
really bothered by these floaters it's in constantly drifting in the field of their view
they can't see the drive they can't read they can't function they maybe can't even work
so because of that then there are some treatment options where we can help remove these floaters
right now in standard practice and ophthalmology there are the two treatments one is using a laser
called laser vitreolysis and that's where they use a yag laser to zap through the front part
of the eye and they go all the way to and they vaporize parts of this large floater and that
helps dissipate it into lots of small little pieces to the point where you don't see them
as often in general there's different people who are good candidates for that procedure and people
who are not if you want to learn more about that procedure again i have done a video all about that
specific topic and again i'll hook that up here in the youtube card or again in the description below
but the other option if you're somebody who just you're like no i can't stand even the small little
floaters that you've been seeing for a long time they're driving you nuts then there is another
procedure and that one's called the vitrectomy and that's where you have to go into the operating
room you meet with your surgeon they're going to schedule you a day for the operating room you're
going to go into that operating room and they're going to they're going to physically drain all
of the fluid inside the eye and they're going to replace it with another fluid now because you're
going into the operating room it's a little bit higher risk for complications such as developing
cataracts as well as other complications of the eye potential infections things like that
and a lot of surgeons for eye care will will typically not recommend it unless your vision
is significantly impacted so again if you're somebody who just doesn't feel safe to drive
you can't function you can't work because of these large floaters they'll be more understanding and
more willing to go ahead with that procedure but usually if you're still seeing 2020 and you're
just having these floaters your doctor will probably advise against having that surgery
now the final thing i want to comment on is that a lot of people reach out to me asking about hey
are there any sort of at-home treatments or eye floater homeopathy that can help unfortunately at
this time in western medicine there is very little evidence to support that any sort of eye drops
or a diet change or anything like that is going to improve floaters naturally on their
own usually just letting them go they'll drift out of their field of view or your brain neuro adapt
all other treatments that you'll see online that people are advertising or trying to sell you are
nothing that has been at least found or been published or studied on in ophthalmology and
that's why most eye doctors pretty much any eye doctor i've ever met they never recommend these
things so if you are considering getting msm eye drops or getting some honey oil to put in your eye
chances are it's probably not going to work and you may be even jeopardizing the health
of your eye because again a lot of these different treatments are not well studied
and right now the current status or current position of both the academy of optometry and
the academy of ophthalmology is that there's just no evidence to support their use and if you are
using anything like that or you're trying it i highly recommend that you do consult with your
local eye care professional so they can at least make sure and follow up with you that your eyes
aren't having damage or any sort of problems because you're using these different drops however
with all of these final comments being said i know that there are different pilot studies in terms
of different treatments and things that are being researched right now so i'm hoping someday we will
have a better treatment for these eye floaters whether that be with an eye drop or something
like a medication you can take orally yeah i'm really hopeful otherwise thanks for watching and
if you enjoyed this video smash that like button for me and share this video with any friends or
family that you know might be having these sort of symptoms if you'd like to learn a little bit more
about eye floaters or the treatments for eye floaters i do have a full series you can click
or tap the screen up here to the side if you want to check that out or if you want to learn a little
bit more about different eye care topics go ahead and click or tap the screen down over here again
this is dr joseph allen here from dr eye health keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon