Treatment of Vitreous Floaters

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    Vitreous Floaters

    What are Vitreous Floaters?

    Vitreous floaters are a highly common description of eye concerns when patients come in for routine eye exams at Menger Eye Centre. Vitreous floaters are small black or grey dots, specks or spots in your field of vision that are often confused as being spots in the front of your eye, when in actual they are floating inside of the eye. Since these floaters are small clumps of cells inside the vitreous of the eye, what we view as floaters are the shadows casted on the retina. At Menger Eye Centre, we offer treatment that yields the best outcomes and provides patient satisfaction. We provide effective treatment approaches by encouraging patients to undergo regular routine eye exams to detect early onset of any eye disorder before it becomes severe.

    Symptoms and causes of Vitreous Floaters

    Usually most eye floaters are caused by age-related changes in the vitreous inside the eye. The vitreous is jelly-like substance that fills your eyes maintain their round shape. When the vitreous becomes a more liquified substance, the microscopic fibers in the vitreous to clump and form shadows on your retina. Other causes of vitreous floaters include; inflammation behind the eye, bleeding of the eye, torn retina certain vitreoretinal surgeries or certain medications injected in the eye.

    Symptoms of eye floaters consist of;

    • Spots or specks in your field of vision when you gaze up at the sky or at a white wall
    • Spots that drift away rapidly as you move your eyes to look directly at them
    • Dark specks that appear as transparent strings of floating shapes

    An increase in symptoms of of eye floaters, such as; seeing light flashes, or darkness on your peripheral vision, requires immediate medical attention since loss of peripheral vision may occur or a retinal tear may be the cause, with or without retinal detachment.

    Treatment for Vitreous Floaters at Menger Eye Centre

    At Menger Eye Centre, Dr. Peter Menger and his team will perform a thorough eye exam followed by an eye dilation process to gain a better insight of the eye and the vitreous to determine the underlying cause of the floaters. Treatment for eye floaters caused by bleeding or inflammation may be treated, however, most vitreous floaters do not require treatment. Since no treatment is pinned down for floaters, patients are advised various approaches for adjusting and eventually ignoring the eye floaters in their field of vision.  If, however, the eye floaters are interfering with your vision causing an impair, Dr. Peter Menger may offer a surgical approach.

    These include;

    • Surgery for the removal of the vitreous; during this procedure a small incision is made to remove the vitreous with a solution to help maintain the round shape of the eye. However, all the outcomes and risks of undergoing such a procedure are discussed with our patients beforehand.
    • Utilizing laser therapy; a laser beam is directed towards the floaters in the vitreous causing them to break up or make then less visible.