can floaters + pain be caused by infection?

[healthmi]

My left eye started to have blurry spots for a few days. If I focused on a line, several parts of the line would be in focus and several parts would be blurry. This happened for a few days and then one day suddenly I have floaters in the eye, about a dozen or so. Then I notice a dull pain around the eye, like the pain associated with flu, except it's only on one eye.

I went to see an opthamologist and after shinning bright lights in my eyes he sent me him saying it's caused by old age (I'm in fifties).

I also started to noice flashes of lights, and "field of asterisks" especially when I blink.

But what I worry most is the pain. I had floaters in my right eye a year ago and there was no pain.

Could there be some kind of disease or infection going on around the left eye, and if so, how is it diagnosed? Or what kind of tests should I ask the doctor to perform?

[JohnHaganMD]

Floaters are commonly caused by posterior vitreous detachments (PVDs) but PVD not cause pain. So no one thing would account for all the symptoms you are having. I would suggest either returning to the ophthalmologist if you have a lot of confidence in her/him or getting a second opinion from a different ophthalmologist perhaps a retina specialist.