What Causes Eye Floaters?

Eye floaters can impact your vision and drift around when you move your eyes. They often look like black or gray specks, or strings in your vision. You may wonder, what causes eye floaters? There are a variety of causes of eye floaters, but they are mostly age-related. 

What Causes Eye Floaters?

Below you will find more information on the symptoms of eye floaters, the most common causes, and factors that can place you at a higher risk for the issue.

Eye Floaters Symptoms and Risk Factors

Eye floaters can cause issues with your vision. The following are the most common eye floater symptoms.

  • Small shapes or strings in your eyes that drift out of your line of vision after some time
  • Noticeable spots when you look at bright plain backgrounds
  • Spots that move when you move your eyes
  • Small shapes that appear like dark spots, or knobby and transparent floating strings

Factors that increase your risk of eye floaters include age (over 50), a history of eye trauma, nearsightedness, cataracts surgery complications, eye inflammation, and diabetic retinopathy. It’s important to contact a vision professional if you have a sudden influx of floaters, flashes of light in the same eye as the floaters, or peripheral vision loss.

Causes of Eye Floaters

Eye floaters are often caused by age-related issues as your vision can change as you get older. As you age, the vitreous (jelly-like substance on your eye) becomes more liquid. The vitreous helps maintain your eyes shape. However, when it liquefies it pulls away from the eyeball’s interior surface and it shrinks and sags. Over time the fibers that are present within the vitreous clump up and get stringy causing issues with your retina. The retina is the layer of tissue found on the back of your eye that senses light and sends images to your brain. When the vitreous clumps it can cast a shadow on your retina, which is what you are seeing when you have eye floaters.

The most common cause of eye floaters is based on age-related vision issues. However, some other causes prove less common. Inflammation in the back of your eye, eye bleeding, a torn retina, or eye surgeries or medications can all cause eye floaters. Depending on your unique vision issues related to eye floaters there are a variety of treatment options. Sometimes you can leave it as is, get surgery, or even laser therapy treatment. It’s important to talk with a vision professional to see which option is right for you.  

Eye Surgery in Orange County

If you have issues with your vision, consider iDesign Lasik in Orange County. iDesign Lasik utilizes the most advanced technology to determine all of your visual imperfections. It has been proven to be more effective than standard vision measurements. In fact, it is 25 times more accurate. The technology scans your cornea to precisely determine your vision issues.

iDesign Lasik is a surgical procedure that can help improve your vision. It can address issues such as myopia (also known as “nearsightedness”), hyperopia (also known as “farsightedness”), and mixed astigmatism (including both corneal and lenticular astigmatisms). The procedure itself is short as it takes just 10 to 20 minutes per eye. In addition, there is a short recovery time as you should be back to your regular daily activities the next day. 

A Long-Term Solution for Lifelong Sight

Lasik is a long-term solution to your vision issues at it lasts ten years or more. The factors that impact the longevity of the treatment include your age when you get treatment and the natural aging process related to your vision. If you are interested in Lasik and cataract surgery in Orange County, contact Dr. Ghosheh Advanced Eye Medical for an appointment today.