Dr. Garg Talks About Floaters and Retinal Detachment

Not a day goes by that I don't see patients who come in with floaters. So what are floaters? Well, floaters are little spots, or hairs, or bugs that people see in the vision that despite how many times they try to brush it away, don't go away. It's because there's a gel in the call vitreous that as we get older, like every other part of the body, starts to sag. And the fibers in the gel will clump together, casting shadows. And that's what we see as floaters.

And as that gel pulls away from the back of the eye-- that tissue is called the retina-- it'll pull on the retina, sometimes irritating the retina, causing it to make light or flicker or flash. And a lot of people see it as a little arc of light in the corner of their vision, like a two-second long comet.

The reason we care about floaters is sometimes when that gel separates from the retina, it forgets to let go of the retina and can pull or tear the retina. So when people have a sudden onset of lots of floaters, lots of flashing lights, or the most concerning thing that comes into the vision is a darkness or a blackness that moves from the corner towards the side, give your ophthalmologist a call.

Thankfully, if it's just flashes and floaters, most patients don't need any treatment at all. And time and gravity will usually make the floaters go away. But for some people, if we find a hole or a tear in the retina, we can treat it in the office with a laser, preventing a more serious problem called retinal detachment from occurring.

And for some patients who have retinal detachment, we can help them by taking them to the operating room to fix it. So when you see flashes and floaters, give your friendly neighborhood ophthalmologist a ring.