The Dangers of Eye Floaters: When to Worry

What Are Eye Floaters? What Causes Them? When Should You See a Doctor?
Do you know the dangers of eye floaters? Learn about symptoms of eye floaters and retinal detachment and when to worry about flashes and floaters in your vision.

Noticing tiny specks or cobweb-like shapes drifting across your vision? These are eye floaters, and while they’re usually harmless, they can sometimes be a sign of a more serious eye condition.
👀 In this video, optometrist Dr. Allen explains:
✅ What eye floaters are and why they happen
✅ When floaters could indicate a serious issue, like retinal detachment
✅ How conditions like infection, uveitis, and diabetes can cause similar symptoms
✅ What to do if you experience sudden or worsening floaters

⚠️ Floaters + flashes of light? Sudden vision loss? You may need urgent care! Learn when to call your doctor.

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Special Thanks to Mark Erickson for his work with Eye Art and Animation

DISCLAIMER: All content in this video and description including infor­ma­tion, opinions, con­tent, ref­er­ences, and links is for infor­ma­tional pur­poses only. The Author does not pro­vide any med­ical advice on the Site. Access­ing, viewing, read­ing, or oth­er­wise using this content does NOT cre­ate a physician-patient rela­tion­ship between you and its author. Pro­vid­ing per­sonal or med­ical infor­ma­tion to the Principal author does not cre­ate a physician-patient rela­tion­ship between you and the Principal author or authors. Noth­ing con­tained in this video or its description is intended to estab­lish a physician-patient rela­tion­ship, to replace the ser­vices of a trained physi­cian or health care pro­fes­sional, or oth­er­wise to be a sub­sti­tute for pro­fes­sional med­ical advice, diag­no­sis, or treatment. You should con­sult a licensed physi­cian or appropriately-credentialed health care worker in your com­mu­nity in all mat­ters relat­ing to your health.

Chapters:
0:00 The Dangers of Eye Floaters: When to Worry
0:32 What are eye floaters
1:50 When to seek professional help
2:58 Symptoms of Retinal Detachment
4:16 Potential causes of eye floaters
5:09 Outro

[DoctorEyeHealth]

Want to stay up to date on eye health science & vision products?

Special Thanks to Mark Erickson for his work with Eye Art and Animation

[jeffruebens]

At about 52 years old, I woke up with a whole bunch of new floaters in one eye. I went to an eye doctor and they said my retina was fine. The same thing happened to the other eye about a month later. The eye doctor said that this retina was also fine. I am very nearsighted and 65 now. I only rarely see them now, since I am used to looking at them and most have moved out of my vision.

[Berserka]

I've had eye floaters since I was a child because I have a connective tissue disorder. I thought everyone had eye floaters for the longest time. A year ago I had a dark floater appear. It was different from my other floaters. It was very invasive. Then a day later a black curtain formed in the corner of my eye and eventually all I could see was black. My retina tore because my connective tissue is weak n stretchy. This happened when I was 24. The whole event was traumatic for me. Recovery was so hard. I had to lay face down for two weeks. I don't wish it upon anyone. My left eye is very sensitive now.

[MustangSally]

I suddenly had a bunch of black "threads" like spiders in my vision with light flashes at the sides. I was terrified and went to Dr but no retina tears. Thank God!

[rogerthat]

My eyes are like an aquarium; all kinds of things swimming around. Doc says "your brain will adust." Well, my brain doesn't agree and continues to not adjust.

[mr.nonamanadus]

I took to my wife to the ER, the doctor said she was just "dehydrated."

Not satisfied I took her to the eye doctor, diagnoses partial retina detachment.

[Sunworshiper-lz]

Thank you for discussing this topic. At age 43 l had a retinal detachment and had buckle surgery. Then the vitreous leaked in both eyes. Age 44 I had victrectomy in right eye. After surgery woke up blind. R eye bandages. Had had macular haemorrhage in left eye. Missed the degeneration and had lucentis injections monthly for 3 months to dry up the bleed. Following year victrectomy in L eye. Then cataract surgery. I advocate for people's vision regularly. It was a tough road but my vision is still very good after the trauma.

[jonasbjornhager]

I regret watching this because now I have even more anxiety about my floaters. But... You have to know the risks. I've been terrified of my floaters for 10 months, and am afraid I'll never get help with it. The other day I felt that I can't handle another year of this, mentally

[nelsonv]

Thanks so much for the info. It explained a lot of experiences I had with flashes and floaters some years back when I was far heavier and prediabetic. I lost a lot of weight and they all disappeared. It never occurred to me. Great topic!

[luckyRwe]

I've had eye floaters in my eyes since my early 20's if not before. It's been over 30 yrs of annoying floaters. Some days are worse than others and reading books is difficult anymore because they can clump up to create a huge blotch in my vision. I've shared that with my eye doctor/s, but no eye doctor has ever told me what to watch out for. Thank you for all your videos! 💕

[toomignon]

I had a retinal detachment and I have always had floaters. What I noticed with a very small black dot in my lower right field of vision that didn’t “settle”….it moved with my field of vision. It got larger over a few hours ( was traveling home from Paris at the time). No flashes of light, no pain. ER wanted to just tack it with a laser which would mean a permanent loss of ⅔ of my vision in my right eye. Refused. Called Jules Stein at UCLA. They got me in with a surgeon for a full successful retinal procedure. saved my vision in that eye. Always see the best opthomology center you have access to before accepting loss of vision.

[FOLLOWJESUSJohn-nx]

I saw floaters since I was 8 years old, 20 years later you explain it to me and everyone. Thank you 👍🏼❕

[tinalippincott]

Excellent, informative video. Floaters have been the bane of my existence for years. Then in 2018, a sudden proliferation of pinpoint like dots (turned out to be blood). Went to ophthalmologist who found a hole in the Rt. retina and sent me immediately from his office to a retinal specialist. Laser coagulation (not fun) performed to close the hole. Think spot welding. All was well (regular appointments) until March of 2024 when a tiny area of detachment was found. Retinal specialist does not want to do invasive surgery at this time. So.... monitoring every three months. I feel like it's a ticking time bomb. Detachments do not heal but sometimes will seal themselves off. Anyone suffering from severe floaters/detachment situation has my total sympathy. Thank you, Dr. Allen.

[markk]

Special thanks for including visual representations of floaters and light flashes. It's disturbing how much other material describes these things only verbally, which is pretty useless.

[Chase-dn]

The fact that nobody talks about Health Secrets Industry Hides by Heather Collins really gets to me. Always loved doctors that opens our eyes.

[ronysib]

One of the permanent symptoms that I started to have after COVID infection is constant floaters in both eyes. The doc assumed that it might be vasculitis caused by the virus. I just live with it now

[ThePharmDWriter]

Wow! What a great informative video! As a pharmacist and medical writer, I'm always interested in learning how things work. (I just found you through your Think Media interview) Thank you for providing such detailed yet concise information in a beautiful and illustrative manner. Seeing how your vision would look on the screen based on the different examples you provided was really cool. Thanks again :)

[birdsong]

I had PVD in my 50's, first in my right eye, then in my left eye a year later. My first symptom was a strange lightening like effect in a circular motion around the outside edge of my vision. Fortunately, neither eye suffered any deleterious effects other than a couple of large eye floaters that are still there at 81 years of age. Thank you for your great informational videos. You are an excellent teacher!

[miwa]

Hi doc,

I was having eye floaters. I saw one of your earlier video in which you cited some study in favor of anti oxidents, particularly BROMALEIN.

I now take BROMALEIN for about 60 days, every six months. I am doing great. 90%of my floaters are gone. I also have converted all my screens into black and white setting.

Also my vision is 6/6 and I think it's just abuse of screens and poor sleep that started these floaters in the first place, (I could be wrong though).

Thanks a lot, Doctor. Thank you so much.

[melisaco]

I noticed that I would get them when I was dehydrated. I modified my diet, drank more water, got exercise, improved sleep habits and managed my stress- haven’t seen any since.