Floaters Specialist

What are floaters?

Floaters are small, moving spots or other shapes that you tend to notice more when you’re looking at something white or vividly colored. The floaters show up against the bright background, moving across your field of vision, and if you try to focus on them, they seem to slide away.

Floaters come in different shapes, so you might see:

• Black or gray dots
• Squiggly lines
• Threadlike strands
• Rings
• Cobwebs

In most cases, floaters consist of collagen, which is a protein found in connective tissues all over your body. There’s a gel-like substance in your eye called the vitreous, and this contains tiny particles of collagen. Sometimes the collagen breaks away and drifts into your field of vision, causing floaters.

If you’re myopic or you’ve had cataract surgery, you have a higher chance of developing floaters. Floaters are more likely to affect you as you get older, but anyone can get floaters.

Should I be worried if I have floaters?

In most cases, floaters are benign. If they’re annoying, blinking a few times should shift them out of the way, but they tend to come and go without being too much of a nuisance.

In rare cases, floaters might be a sign of a more serious problem called retinal detachment. This is where the retina in the back of your eye separates from the surrounding structures. Other rare causes of floaters include:

• Eye disease
• Eye injury
• Diabetic retinopathy
• Crystal-like vitreous deposits
• Eye tumors

The majority of floaters are benign and don’t require treatment. However, if you have other symptoms or find your floaters particularly annoying, we recommend an examination. The practice of Michael Levine, M.D., F.A.C.S. will use eye drops to dilate your pupils for a full eye exam to thoroughly check for any problems.