I just saw an eye doctor and she said I have floaters..
but something I just thought of is isn't floaters supposed to be spots on the eye?
well what i'm seeing is seethrough! and it looks like maybe a strand of hair or yarn or something but its not! its always a differnt size or in a different place whenever I see it again it seems..
so is this still a floater?
and also how do you get and get rid of floaters? The eye has 3 coats. The outer coat is white, it's called the Sclera. The sclera becomes clear in the front of the eye (the cornea).
When you look at someone and see that they have lovely brown eyes, or blue or gray or hazel or green or ?, you look through their cornea and can see that second layer, the iris. The iris has color and a hole in the middle called the Pupil. As the iris gets to the outer edge, near where the white part and cornea meet, the iris becomes part of the Ciliary Body. This is connected to a vascular layer in the back of the eye, the Choroid.
So far we have the Sclera in the back, cornea in the front as the outer layer. Next to it is the choroid, a vascular layer in the back of the eye which becomes the iris in the front of the eye.
The third layer is the retina. It forms from the embryonic optic cup. It takes light, changes it to electrical activity or nervous activity and sends messages back to the brain where it's interpreted as ....whatever you are looking at.
The center of the eye isn't hollow. It has a gel that's very, very thick in children, but this gel breaks down as we get older like jello sitting on the table. After awhile the jello-turkey at Thanksgiving doesn't look like a turkey anymore. It becomes all sloshy. As the vitreous breaks down (syneresis), it collapses on itself, has pockets of fluid, etc.
This vitreous is made up of collagen fibers surrounded by a muccopolysaccharide coat. The outer charges on the coat are similar, so the collagen fibers stay apart a 'certain' distance, which just happens to be the distance of a wavelength of light. These fibrils are not visible, 'normally'.
But as things break down with time, and some of the gel is liquefied, the collagen fibers will bump into each other and the disruption of the charges on the coating is ruined, and the fibers clump together. They'll become visible if there's enough of them. So people may see a sheet of angle hair, or a spider web or cobweb or other shapes.
Also, during the embryo genesis of the eye there's a central vessel that runs from the optic nerve to the posterior lens. As this vessel degeneration's is leaves a hollow canal. Sometimes some of the vessel wall doesn't degenerate completely and it's visible as a floater.
If the gel is pulled hard enough, it'll pop off the back of the eye where it sort of just lays there like a piece of paper on the table. But there are some connections to the nerve, and macula, and blood vessels within the retina itself (not the choroidal vessels which are underneath the retina).
This separation is called a Posterior Vitreous Detachment. As the gel then sloshes around a lot more, it can pull on the front of the retina or peripheral retina and can cause a tear. These tears usually look like a horseshoe, and are called horseshoe tears. These are 'dangerous' tears as the gel keeps yanking on the tear as the eye moves around. Eventually fluid can get under the retina through the tear and the retina will float off....this is a retinal detachment. The repair is to close the hole...one way or another.
Your floaters are NORMAL. But if you get dozens of new little floaters you either have torn a surface blood vessel and can cell the shadows of the little red blood cells, or you have a retinal tear and are seeing retinal pigment epithelial cells (which means a tear).
Also, as the gel sloshes around and yanks on the retina, it can cause the sensations of light flashes. This is called photopsia.
Getting rid of floaters. Since they've been there all their life, and yours too, they think the belong there. It IS their home. If they get really 'bad' and you plan to jump off the bridge cuz you can't take this anymore, DON'T. You can get a vitrectomy and have the gel removed.
There are other conditions where calcium salts combine with vitreous fibrils...this is called Asteroid Hyalosis. It's amazing how much stuff can be floating around in there and the person is not aware they're even there. A lot depends on the person.
Leave them alone. Eventually they dissolve into water anyway. The complication of vitrectomy....retinal detachment. NOT worth the risk. Enjoy your floaters..... Floaters are not spots on the eye. They are physical bits of stuff floating in the fluid of your eye.
Yes, what you are describing are floaters and you don't get rid of them. Yes, that would be a floater and your eye doc would be the one to tell how to get rid of it. i know exactly what you're talking about...i've got them and i've had them has long as i can remember. mine are clear to but you can see them and they're weird shapes and just float around....
kind of annoying, kind of interesting to "watch" sometimes I'm not sure but I always thought floaters were parasites (i.e. worms or similar) floating/swimming around in your eye...
Did your eye doctor elaborate on these floaters? I suggest you see your primary care doctor or better yet ophthalmologist and get a better diagnosis. when i saw a eye doctor for the same problem,he explained to me that these floaters are an indication to an on coming migrain,true to form i had a migrain head ache with in the very next day of seeing these dark spots.if you are having head aches monitor the spots and head aches,see if this isn't an indicator of migraines. That is also what I see but I also have the dot to go with it. It's totally normal for it to float around your eye. I don't think you can get rid of floaters. Yep, sounds like you do have floaters.
This could be for many different reasons...
* you may not be getting enough sleep
* you could be anemic
* you may have some other type of vitamin/ mineral deficiency
I suggest seeing your GP and telling them you have floaters. And getting 8 hours sleep a night and eating lots of fresh fruit and veg.
I don't think your optician can do anything about them though.
Good luck! Floaters are the viscous jelly that makes up the density of your eyeball breaks up into little pieces. It is normal and happens more often with age.
If the floaters get worse and you notice flashes of light or arcing (know as flasher & floaters) contact your eye dr. immediately as this could mean a detached retina. Floaters represent a hole or scar in the eye. they are not spots on the eye. The spot you are seeing, the strand of hair or yarn, would you say it also looks like a spider web?
If so you need to go back to the doctor. You could have a retinal tear. | 