Why do I have floaters in my eyes?

Symptoms:

You’ve noticed small, dark specks in your vision which shift when you move your eyes, so when you try to look at them they move quickly out of your visual field. They’re most visible when you look at a plain white background. You’ve noticed more floaters than usual in one of your eyes and you get flashes of light in the same eye.

You’ve noticed a sudden onset of new floaters and darkness at the sides of your vision.

It could be:

Eye floaters, like grey specks, strings or cobwebs that drift when you move your eyes. Most are due to age and are simply clumps of protein in the liquid vitreous of your eye casting shadows on your retina.

Uveitis, an inflammation in the layers of the back of your eye causing release of debris into the vitreous, possibly caused by inflammation.

A torn retina (retinal

detachment), where the retina at the back of the eye becomes torn by the weight of the liquid vitreous within the eye.

Stop it:

Age-related floaters need no treatment. They sometimes increase in number or get darker and bigger. Check with your doctor if you’re worried.

See your doctor and possibly be referred to an eye specialist (ophthalmologist) to find the cause of the inflammation and for treatment.

See your doctor immediately because without treatment a retinal tear may lead to detachment causing it to separate from the back of the eye. Untreated, it can cause blindness.