FLASHES & FLOATERS

Flashes look like lightning streaks or flashing lights in your vision. Some patients describe them as seeing stars. This occurs when light hits the retina (lining of the back of the eye) and sends a message through the optic nerve to the brain to create an image. Attached to the retina is a gel-like substance called the vitreous. With age, the vitreous shrinks which pull or tugs on the retina which causes the brain to interpret as a flash of light.

Floaters appear as small dots, specks, lines, cobwebs, or circles floating in your vision. They are small fibers floating in your vitreous (gel-like substance inside your eye). Floaters typically increase with age when the vitreous shrinks, but can be present at any age. Having a higher prescription (high myopia), previous surgery, injury, or trauma makes patients more at risk for floaters.