Flashes and floaters are one of the most common ways your eyes let you know something is changing inside them. Most of the time it's a normal part of aging. Once in a while it's a retinal tear, which needs same-day attention. Your optometrist is the one who can tell you which you're dealing with.
Around 1 in 4 adults get posterior vitreous detachment in their 50s. By 80 almost everyone has. Most cases are fine. A handful need to be looked at right away. Rather than guessing, book in.
What Are Flashes & Floaters?
Floaters are small shapes — dots, cobwebs, squiggly threads — drifting through your vision. They aren't sitting on the outside of your eye. They're inside it. The gel that fills your eye shrinks and clumps as you age, and those clumps throw little shadows on your retina.
Flashes are quick streaks or arcs of light, usually off to the side and usually more obvious in the dark. They show up when the gel inside your eye pulls on the retina as it shifts around.
Most floaters are harmless and fade into the background once you get used to them. Where it gets serious is when a lot of new ones show up at once, when flashes start firing off in one eye or when a shadow starts drifting across your vision. Any of those and you should be seen the same day.
Why See Your Optometrist?
Optometrists are doctors for your eyes. They have the imaging and the training to see what's happening at the back of the eye, which is where flashes and floaters come from. A full exam looks at the retina, the vitreous and the optic nerve, and sorts out an ordinary age-related change from something that needs attention now. In BC a clear winter day is when floaters get loudest. An exam is how you find out what's actually going on back there.
If the floaters have changed, if flashes are showing up or if something about your vision is just off, don't sit on it. Your optometrist can tell you what's going on and what happens next.
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