Effective treatment for eye floaters explained
Floaters are dots and lines that can appear in your vision. In most cases, they are harmless and should not give you any cause for concern. If you have had them for a long time, if they don’t affect your vision and if they aren’t getting worse you generally have nothing to worry about.
However, there are times when you should seek medical assistance for floaters. If the number of floaters suddenly increases, if your vision becomes blurred, if you find shadows moving across your field of vision, if your eyes start to experience pain or if your floaters suddenly manifest after you have undergone eye surgery or suffered an injury to your eye, you should call 111 straightaway or else make an emergency appointment to see an optician. These could be tell-tale signs of a more serious problem developing in your eye. At your appointment, your eyes will be checked in order to see what the problem is. If it is judged to be serious enough, you may be referred to a specialist eye doctor known as an ophthalmologist to undergo more tests or to receive treatment.
Sometimes eye floaters are caused by a detached retina. This is a serious condition that needs to be treated quickly lest it permanently affect your sight. It will require surgery at a hospital and it may involve replacing the jelly contained inside your eye in a procedure known as a vitrectomy. Alternatively, a small band may be attached to your eye to move the retina and the wall of your eye closer together. This is known as a scleral buckling. A bubble of gas may be injected into your eye in a procedure called pneumatic retinopexy. This will push the retina back against the back of the eye. Finally, you may receive cryotherapy where the tear in the retina is sealed by either a laser or by freezing.
A less frequent method of treating floaters is to have them broken up by laser treatment to make them less noticeable. Some people go on to report improvements in their vision while others report no change at all. This procedure can be risky if the laser is aimed incorrectly.
Eye floaters can sometimes be a slight nuisance but unless they build up or are accompanied by other symptoms, they are typically harmless. Nonetheless if you do have concerns, you should not hesitate to seek medical advice.
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