Medically Reviewed by: Paul J. Stewart M.D.
What Causes Floaters and Flashes in Eyes?
What causes floaters and flashes in eyes? You might have experienced black spots or flashes that quickly disappear from your vision. Perhaps they have been persisting for a long time and are beginning to interfere with daily life. If you have been concerned about this, have no fear, Eye Center of Texas is here to help with eye floaters and flashes.
Do floaters and flashes go away?
Normally, eye floaters and flashes go away on their own. Microscopic fibers in your vitreous, or jelly-like material in your eye can cast shadows on your retina and lead you to see flashes, black spots, or other visual phenomena. As we age, however, it is normal and natural for this gel to start to thicken or shrink, which creates clumps or strands. Eventually, the vitreous gel starts to separate from the retina. This condition is known as Posterior Vitreous Detachment or PVD. As a result, we tend to see many more eye floaters and flashes as we get older. Because it’s a normal phenomenon, we can never truly get rid of them completely. However, they can be reduced in severity, if it impacts your day-to-day activities.
What happens when eye floaters won’t go away? If this happens, you might wish to seek treatment to greatly reduce the occurrence of eye floaters and flashes. Eye Center of Texas provides YAG (yttrium-aluminum-garnet) laser vitreolysis that uses a powerful laser to eliminate floaters in a safe and painless procedure.
Floaters might be one of the side effects after cataract surgery. It’s not that they suddenly appeared, they are just easier to see with the clearer vision you now have after cataract surgery.
Are floaters and flashes serious?
Floaters and flashes are not usually serious. However, if they are severe enough, they can seriously affect your quality of life or even put you at risk. It might make watching television, reading a book, or working at your computer a difficult or frustrating experience. If you are driving on the road or working heavy machinery, they can potentially distract you, putting others’ lives at risk, not to mention your own.
There are more rare complications from posterior vitreous detachment that can lead to serious medical injury. When posterior vitreous detachment causes scar tissue to form on the surface of the retina, this can result in macular pucker, also known as a retinal pucker, which can distort your vision even further. If you suddenly have a sudden burst of eye floaters and flashes, this can indicate retinal tears or even retinal detachment. Posterior vitreous detachment can sometimes pull too strongly on the surface of the retina, causing holes or tears. If this happens, you should seek medical treatment immediately, as this can lead to a severe loss of vision.
Eye floaters and flashes can also be indicative of severe diabetic retinopathy, a diabetic eye disease that can lead to blindness. This condition is a result of an excess of glucose in the blood vessels of the retina. As it cannot be reversed, it is crucial that you identify it as soon as possible. If you have diabetes and are experiencing eye floaters and flashes, you should regularly seek consultation from one of our experts at Eye Center of Texas.
What can I do about eye floaters and flashes?
If eye floaters and flashes are plaguing you on a day-to-day basis, or you’ve experienced an alarming uptick in their frequency, you might wish to seek medical treatment. Luckily the Eye Center of Texas team is here to help. With a cutting-edge eye floaters treatment like YAG laser vitreolysis, our retina specialists carefully remove the clumps or strands in your vitreous in a safe, painless, and prompt procedure.
We here at Eye Center of Texas are experts on laser treatment for floaters.
Now that you have more information on what causes floaters and flashes in eyes, the retina specialists at Eye Center of Texas are here to help you with any questions and floater treatment options you may need. We have years of experience treating eye diseases and vision issues with only the safest, most advanced surgical techniques and technology.
Give us a call at 713-797-1010 or request an appointment online at any of our convenient locations today.
More Helpful Articles by Eye Center of Texas:
- What Causes Presbyopia?
- Femtosecond Laser Cataract Surgery
- Find an Ophthalmologist in Houston You Can Trust
- Cataract Surgery in One Eye: Everything You Need to Know
- What to Expect After LASIK
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