The sudden appearance of these symptoms can mean that the vitreous is pulling away from your retina, a condition called posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), or it could mean that the retina itself is becoming dislodged from the back of the eye’s inner lining, which contains blood, nutrients and oxygen vital to healthy function.Īs the vitreous gel tugs on the delicate retina, it might cause a small tear or hole in it. However, if you see a shower of floaters and spots, especially if they are accompanied by flashes of light, you should seek medical attention immediately from an eye care professional. Noticing a few floaters from time to time is not a cause for concern. When are eye floaters a medical emergency? When you move your eye to try and see better, the floater moves in the same direction and floats back into your peripheral vision and out of view. Once you start seeing floaters, it can be hard to ignore them, especially if you are stressed or fatigued.īecause the clumps of collagen that cause floaters are often suspended in the periphery of the vitreous, it can be impossible to look directly at them. They often appear in your peripheral vision, which makes it easy to mistake a floater for an insect flying in front of your face.Īnother time people notice floaters is when they’re staring at a computer screen that has a white or light-colored background.

You’re most likely to notice vitreous floaters when you gaze at a clear or overcast sky. These are what cause those squiggly lines in your vision. When this occurs, bits of collagen in the vitreous can clump together and form lint-like structures. As we age, the vitreous part becomes less like a gel and more watery.

The vitreous body is mostly water, but it also contains a protein called collagen. When they float close to the light-sensitive retina in the back of the eye, they cast shadows on the retina, and these shadows are what we perceive as eye floaters. Eye floaters are caused by irregularly shaped clumps of collagen that float around in the liquefied vitreous body, and can affect light passing through the eye.

Seeing colored spots before your eyes