Eye Floaters and Flashes

Eye floaters are figures with different shapes and sizes that appear in your eyesight. They are sometimes normal after certain conditions, especially after applying pressure to the eyes. But ongoing and sustained eye floaters can indicate an eye condition.

They are commonly reported in different sizes and shapes. They are usually similar to passing clouds or cobwebs, sometimes look like black specs or similar to a bug flying around in the visual field. When you try to stare directly at them, they move along with your eyes.

Floaters are formed on the inside of the eye. Deep within, we have a substance known as vitreous gel. This substance sometimes creates clumps or strands that project shadows on the retina and create the form of floaters in your visual field. Floaters are completely harmless, usually noticed when patients are reading or looking at a white background or up at the sky.

However, the appearance of certain types of floaters and flashes can be a sign that something is happening to the retina. For example, they also appear in cases of retinal detachment, a severe condition that needs to be treated as soon as possible.

As the name implies, eye flashes look like camera flashes, somewhat similar to an arc of light or a lightning streak. Eye flashes develop in the back of the eye, very similar to eye floaters. The vitreous gel starts pulling away and you start having these in your visual field. They are usually more persistent than eye floaters, and may stay in your eyesight for a few weeks to a few months.

Experiencing floaters and flashes can be completely benign, but some people have to be extra careful, especially if they have a higher risk factor for severe eye conditions. Talk to your doctor and report floaters and flashes if you have the following risk factors:

• Myopia or hyperopia with very high prescriptions
• Previous inflammatory processes in the eye
• Past complications of cataract surgery 
• Patients with diabetic retinopathy 
• Eye trauma
• Eye tumors

Contact your ophthalmologist as soon as possible if you have one of the following warning signs and symptoms:

• A shower of multiple floaters that appear suddenly in your visual field
• Several new floaters or very large floaters
• Sudden and continuous flashes of light
• Peripheral vision loss (when you stop perceiving visual impulses on the sides)
• Appearance of a dark curtain coming down and blocking your visual field

In most cases, floaters and flashes go away by themselves, but some of them remain for a long time. There is no current treatment for this type of persistent floaters. Most cases are not serious, but you need to be evaluated by your doctor if you have the warning symptoms above or belong to a high-risk group as listed above.