Eye Floaters, How Do They Occur?

Eye Floaters

Let’s say it’s a nice day and your just looking at a nice view of the sky and sea and you see this small dark eye floater appear in your line of vision. It seems to follow the central area you are looking at, but if you look off to the side of up or down, they will likely just disappear.

If it’s your first floater, then it’s quite natural to be alarmed by it simply because it was something that wasn’t there before. You might be tempted to call your ophthalmologist to schedule an appointment because your sure you might be slowly going blind, but you can relax because eye floaters (an industry term for inclusions in the eye that get in the focal plane of the cornea, lens, vitreous humor and macula) are quite natural. They will occur at, one time or another, estimates say, to 9 out of 10 people.

What do they mean? Floaters in the eye are just usually a natural part of aging where part of the rear of the eye, near the macula may shrink a bit and as it shrinks small inclusions or cells will break away and float in the eye’s vitreous humor. Floaters will also tend to concentrate near the macula or focal point (and nerve exit) of they eye and they will get in the way whenever you look in their direction.

When you see the floaters, which may be groups of cells that have gotten away and are floating around or bits that have actually come in through small tears in the retina (the wall that keeps the vitreous humor – the full name for your eye’s jelly part) and have become inclusions, as well, you have nothing to worry about because small tears in the retina are usually associated with aging eyes. Things begin to shrink as you age and the vitreous may shrink away from the retina, causing a tiny tear, letting the floater in.

Floaters In Eye

If you have several of them, it is likely that an ophthalmologist will see it, but only on serious dilation of the eye causing the lens to open widely, using special drugs, and only by using a very bright light and very large magnifying lens (the same setup also reveals cataracts, a more serious condition). Once the exam has ended, you may wonder why the ophthalmologist recommends doing nothing. This is simply because those floaters that so bother you are really no bother at all to your eye.

Indeed, many times, they will register with your brain only when you are looking at an object and they happen to be in the same focal line at the rear of the eye. Other than that those floaters won’t even bother you because your brain just forgets them and wants you to forget them, too, as your eyes go about their daily business of seeing the world around you. So, don’t be surprised, at all, if your ophthalmologist – if asked – will tell you he saw them, but just forget about them. They appear to most of us.