Floaters

With normal aging, the vitreous gel inside the eye changes composition and separates away from the retina. After this occurs, patients can start to notice floating spots in their vision at times. These spots are pieces of proteins that are no longer optically clear floating around the center of the eye. People often complain of seeing a mosquito, stray hair, or spider web moving throughout their vision. Normally floaters are incidental findings that do not cause any harm to the eye but sometimes they are significant enough that they truly interfere with the patient’s visual quality. There are three options when dealing with floaters. Waiting to see if the brain gets acclimated to the new floaters in the vision is always an option. Many floaters will be significant when they first appear but patients tend to notice them less and less over time. Another option is to undergo a laser procedure in the office to break apart the larger proteins into smaller ones that tend to block the vision less. Lastly, removing the vitreous gel from the eye with a surgery will also eliminate most of the floaters.