Why am I seeing spots?
It may pain you a bit to learn there is another part of your body that can lose firmness as you age – your eyes. About the time you start getting your senior citizen discount, you may also see little flecks floating across your field of vision, sometimes accompanied by flashes. These “floaters” may look like a shred or a squiggle or a cobweb and may dart or drift and then seemingly disappear. While annoying, they are rarely a threat to your vision or health.
Floaters form when the gel that fills the eye (called the vitreous) loses firmness and begins to separate from the back wall of the eye. You may know that a substance in your skin called collagen breaks down as you age. Floaters are caused by the same process in your eye — and in fact, the jelly-like substance swishing around your eye also contains collagen. Sometimes, the gel tugging on the retina as it separates can cause flashes.
Floaters are more common if you are:
- Nearsighted
- Have had cataract or other eye surgery
- Have had eye inflammation or an injury
Most of the time, floaters are just a nuisance, not a medical emergency. Surgery is rarely necessary, although if a patient experiences bleeding or hemorrhaging, or if floaters are numerous enough to affect vision, a vitrectomy, or removal of the vitreous, may be required. Another complication from the development of floaters could be a retinal detachment, which severely affects vision and requires immediate surgery. Watch out for sudden vision loss, like a curtain or veil coming down into your field of vision, or for floaters that dramatically increase, resembling a swarm of gnats.
If you start seeing floaters or flashers that persist over 30 minutes, call for an appointment right away.
Dr. Jeff Pinkerton
iCare for you.
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This is very informative thanks for sharing this one.
eye clinic columbia sc
My mother was seeing spots and has been diagnosed with Charles Bonnet syndrome. Very interesting.
Charles Bonnet syndrome (CBS) causes people with vision loss to see things that aren’t really there due to how the brain reacts to the loss. The exact way loss of sight leads to hallucinations isn’t really known, but research is revealing more about how the eye and the brain work together.
Current research suggests that when we see real things around us, the information received from our eyes actually stops the brain from creating its own pictures. If you lose your sight, however, your brain is not receiving as much information from your eyes as it used to. The brain sometimes fills in these gaps with new fantasy pictures, patterns or old pictures that it has stored. When this occurs, you experience these images stored in your brain as hallucinations and, yes, sometimes spots. Thank you for your comment.
Right on. Spoken right off their page. Common symptoms are seeing spots, and little people. My Mom thought she was going crazy or early dementia,
What if your young, like less then thirty?
It’s not unheard of for younger people to see floaters. They may be “normal” (harmless) or due to a problem. To be on the safe side, see an optometrist for an evaluation.
Thanks for the information! I remember seeing floaters in my eyes ever since I was a kid. I’ve always wondered why I started seeing floaters only when I started wearing glasses. I didn’t know that people who are nearsighted commonly see floaters. It’ good to know that seeing floaters aren’t a sign of a medical emergency, unless there are so many of them that they inhibit vision.