Flashes and floaters can be a common visual symptom for many people. Flashes and floaters all happen in what is called vitreous humor. The vitreous is the clear gel-like substance between the lens and the retina. As you age, your vitreous and the proteins that are inside of that gel essentially start looking like little floating objects inside of your eye. You don’t actually see the protein itself, rather the shadow from the protein gets passed through.
Most of the time, flashes and floaters can be a natural occurrence without the threat of any serious vision loss. However, the sudden onset of flashes and floaters with other symptoms such as shadow in the peripheral vision, or a rapid decline in vision can signal a more serious condition such as retinal detachment.
If your flashes and floaters don’t naturally disappear over a couple of weeks there are procedures that treat these retina conditions. If the sudden onset of flashers and floaters could lead to permanent vision loss your retina specialist will consider vitrectomy surgery if needed.
The sudden onset of flashes and floaters symptoms may be scary but our team of ophthalmologists are here to help you.
