Floaters

[Jamie55]

I have just recently in the past few weeks developed "floaters" in my right eye.  I went to the eye doctor who said they are not dangerous.  They are so annoying though and very uncomfortable and make me feel like something is wrong in my brain.  Is there anything I can do to make them go away?

[Jim123456]

Nope...I've had them all my life. I've learned to live with them. I'm sure there is some surgery that may correct them, if they are THAT annoying.

[distracting]

daf

[Jamie55]

Thanks Jim! Do they ever go away or they just stay indefinitely? Will I get used to them?

[distracting]

Oops, sorry about that.

Actually, there are no commonly used surgical cures for floaters. Laser can be used to disrupte some types of floaters, but it's not common and very controversial.

Vitrectomy can be used in extreme cases - but it sounds like that is not commonly done. There are some resources on the web about this, but it sounds like no surgeoun would do this only for floaters unless it was debiliating, not simply annoying.

I'm in your boat though. Got floaters, they are annoying me badly, but at this point I am just doing my best to try and ignore and look through them. It's not easy, but from what I understand that's the deal. Most everyones brains get used to them according to the doctors, or they sink out of visual axis, and I'm hopeful it happens to me...But don't get your hopes up for surgery or cure - it's not happening right now for simply annoying strings/webs/dots type floaters.

Distracted.

[Jim123456]

Well, I got used to the floaters around when I was eight. I remember, at that time, going to the eye doctor and mentioning them to him. Let's just say he wasn't too smart. He had no idea what they were. So I said fine; and I just left them alone. Since then, I've seen them mostly when I look at bright surfaces...the sky is the best example. However (and this is STRICTLY from my experiences only) there are things that seem to produce more floaters. For example, I'm currently in 12th grade of high school. Of course, there's a lot of reading and stuff involved. And it seems the more I do stuff like read, it produces more floaters. So yes, I agree with distracting...floaters can be real annoying. But if you put them out of your mind, your brain will stop picking them up as being there.
I hope I was of some help to you!
-Jim

[Jim123456]

Hey...sorry to write again before you even had a chance to respond to my last post. I was viewing websites for you...I found a few sites that have information on floaters. Try

http://vitreousfloaters.com/

http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/spotsfloats.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/eye-floaters/DS01036/UPDATEAPP=0

I hope this helps. I just don't want you to have to go through the same fear/worry I had when I first developed these. Granted, I was a kid...but still.
-Jim

[EWynn]

You need to go to the website eyefloaters.com.  I have been to this doctor.  He works miracles.
EWynn

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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[orangehorse]

Hi everyone.  Thank goodness I found this particular thread.
I had a floater in my right eye from earliest memories of childhood (it sort of resembled a mosquito).  Now in the past 3-4 years, all of the sudden I've been getting more (I've got four diff ones now), and also now 2 are in my left eye.
The new ones are smaller, but darker spots.  I'm wondering if there's some connection to sunlight and getting them?  I've lived in bright, sunny places for most of my life--Thailand, southern Africa, and now Florida.

I'm really bothered by these new floaters.  They do distract me at times, often when I'm reading white page/copy. I'm afraid they'll get worse over time or increase in number.  Has this been any other people's experience?
Thank you!  Would like your opinions.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Floaters are more related to birthdays than sunlight. The older you get the more people have floaters. Sunlight on the other hand can cause cataracts, macular degeneration, eyelid skin cancers and discolor the white part of the eye.

You will have to live with your floaters as there is not treatment or procedure that treats the common floater. You can spend a lot of money for various nostrums and snake oil that claim to disolve floaters.

Now that you're middle age have your eyes checked yearly by an Eye MD ophthalmologist-physician.

JCH III MD

[brd888]

I have floaters. I advise you to forget about surgical treatment or laser. 2 good pieces of news are-
1. Over time a single floater will slowly break up, get more blurred and less visible.
2. As you get older the vitreous fluid is meant to lessen in density. Therefore dense floaters will sink below vision quicker.
At the end of the day the advice to "forget" about them and "ignore" them is not good. Best advice is to think of them as simply part of the eye. You are not looking at the world through "muck" but through part and parcel of the eyeball. Think of floaters as cells everyone sees and not just you.
Regards.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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