Eye floaters at the age of fourteen?

Hello, Im a fourteen year old girl, and about a year ago i started getting eye floaters. In the past, I've had three surgeries on my eyes. Ive got a lazy left eye. Im short sighted, quite badly and I wear glasses for it. With my eye floaters, on my right eye I usually only have one, occasionaly a couple more. On my left eye however, i usually have like a long floater. All my floaters are transperant, theyre not these big black/blues lines I hear about. In the morning, when the sun still quite low, and i squint my left eye, i get lots and lots of floaters like little dots, weird transperant things all sorts of shapes, pretty much covering lots of my eye. Until i unsquint them, and all i have is the long transperant line. The line is a bit wide, its not thin. Im worried about this and im a bit nervous about telling my parents, or anyone else. I havent told anyone i know in real life. I feel more comfortable talking about it on a site like this. Any feedback would help, i plan to put this in the forum for the doctors on the same site, but its just busy or unavailable right now. Thanks for all you help in advance. Yours Faithfully.  

[John C Hagan]

Hello Sarah, I'm the EyeForum MD.  Floaters can occur at any age even in infants. In very young people the floaters are often remmants of tissue present in the middle of the eye during the embryo stage. Usually these dissolve prior to birth but not always. (I'm nearsighted and started seeing floaters about age eight-----I thought they were angels).  If an eye becomes nearsighted (myopic) floaters become more common. Then as we age floaters are more likely to occur when the vitreous gel in the back of the eye peals off the retina (vitreous detachment).  

Most floaters are annoying but not serious. If you experience extremely bright flashes of light, showers of floaters or loss of peripheral vision you should see an ophthalmologist (EyeMD) immediately. The prevalence of retinal detachment in young peole is very low, less than one in 3,000.  Floaters--like people-come in all sizes and shapes. There is no medicine or treatment for floaters so the best thing is to tune them out. When you squint your eye or look at a blue background it will make the floaters more prominent. Have your eyes checked yearly by an ophthalmologist (EyeMD) then you won't have to worry.

JCH MD

[saralovesducks]

thank you so much for your help! it helped a lot.

[kbarker]

i am 20 years old, and ever since moving house in august 2007 i have experienced floaters which are really annoying do you know what could be the cause of this?