Floaters often appear as pieces of lint, dust, or debris that float around and are seen best with an azure blue sky, gray fog bank, or a slightly off-white wall as the background. Flashes can appear as streaks of light, lightening bolts, shooting stars, sparks of light, or an arc of light to the side.
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Flashes and Floaters:
Information for adults

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Picture of Flashes and Floaters: Floaters often appear as pieces of lint, dust, or debris that float around and are seen best with an azure blue sky, gray fog bank, or a slightly off-white wall as the background. Divider line
Floaters often appear as pieces of lint, dust, or debris that float around and are seen best with an azure blue sky, gray fog bank, or a slightly off-white wall as the background.
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Treatments Your Physician May Prescribe
If the flashes and floaters are purely from normal aging, then no treatment is needed. In time, the flashes and floaters will become much less if this is the cause. If, however, there is a retinal tear, bleeding, retinal detachment, or infection inside the eye, medical and surgical therapy will be needed. Such therapy may include any or all of the following:

  • Laser surgery
  • Surgical repair of a retinal detachment
  • Injection of drugs into the eye
  • Topical eye drops
  • Oral medications
Lastly, although you may hear that normal floaters can be removed by doing a vitrectomy (a surgical procedure to remove some vitreous from the eye), it is rarely done, as the risks of surgery outweigh the benefits.

Last Modified: 15 Feb 2008

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