New Floaters or Flashes of Light? Get Your Retina Checked Today

Floaters are small shapes that drift through your vision: specks, dots, threads, cobwebs or a dark ring. They are not on the surface of the eye. They are clumps and strands inside the clear gel that fills the eye, called the vitreous, and what you see is the shadow those clumps cast on your retina. They move when your eye moves and they are easiest to see against a bright plain background like a blue sky, a white wall or a computer screen.

The retina does not feel pain or pressure. When something tugs on it, it responds the only way it can, with light. So when the vitreous gel pulls on the retina, your brain sees a flash, an arc or a streak of light, often at the edge of your vision and often more obvious in a dark room. Flashes that come from traction on the retina are the reason new flashes are taken seriously.

Most floaters are not dangerous. Nearly everyone develops some over time, and long-standing floaters that have not changed are usually just part of the aging of the gel inside the eye. What matters is change. A sudden increase, a new flash of light, or a shadow in your side vision can mean the gel has torn the retina, and that is the situation where waiting costs vision.

Get examined right away if you notice a sudden burst of new floaters, new or repeated flashes of light, a curtain or shadow moving across part of your vision, or any drop in vision in one eye. Those are the warning signs of a retinal tear or a retinal detachment. Floaters you have had for years that look the same as always are far less concerning, and they can wait for a regular appointment.

Same day if any part of your vision is missing, dimmer, or blocked by a shadow or curtain. The National Eye Institute puts it plainly: with those symptoms you go to an eye doctor or an emergency room right away. For new floaters or flashes with no loss of vision, published triage guidance still wants you examined quickly rather than at your next routine visit, because the exam is the only way to separate a harmless gel change from a tear. Call us and we will tell you where you fall.

That is the usual outcome and it is good news, but it is not the end of it. A small number of people, on the order of two in a hundred, develop a retinal break in the weeks after a normal first exam, so our doctors will set a recheck and tell you exactly which symptoms send you back sooner. If your floaters get worse, new flashes start, or a shadow appears, you come back that day rather than waiting for the scheduled visit.

A posterior vitreous detachment, or PVD, is the gel inside the eye separating from the retina. It is a normal age-related event, it is the usual reason new floaters and flashes appear, and by itself it is not dangerous. The problem is that as the gel peels away it can pull hard enough in one spot to tear the retina, and there is no way to tell the difference from the outside. That is why a PVD gets a dilated exam rather than reassurance over the phone.

No, and usually it does not. A systematic review in JAMA pooled 17 studies of patients who came in with sudden floaters or flashes and found a retinal tear in about 14 percent of them, roughly one in seven. Community studies, where people are not already being referred to a retina clinic, report lower rates closer to one in twenty. Either way the number is not small, the symptoms of the harmless version and the dangerous version look the same from the inside, and the only way to tell which one you have is an examination.

A retinal detachment is usually painless, which is what fools people. The classic description is a dark curtain, shadow or veil that comes in from the side or from above and does not go away, and it can grow over hours to days. It often follows a period of new floaters and flashes. If the center of the retina detaches, central vision drops sharply. Any of this is an emergency.

Yes, and this is the part worth knowing. A symptomatic tear that is left alone goes on to detach the retina in something like a third to a half of cases. Sealed promptly with laser or with a freezing treatment, which builds a scar around the break so fluid cannot get underneath it, that risk drops to under 5 percent. It is an office procedure rather than an operating room. We do not perform retinal laser at our offices. What we do is find the tear, explain it, and get you in front of a retina specialist quickly, usually the same day.

A detached retina is repaired in one of three ways: a gas bubble that pushes the retina back into place, a vitrectomy that removes the gel and replaces it with air, gas or oil, or a silicone band sewn to the outside of the eye. The National Eye Institute reports treatment is ultimately successful for about 9 out of 10 people, and vision usually starts improving around four to six weeks after surgery and can keep changing for months. How much vision comes back depends most on whether the center of the retina had detached before the repair, which is the entire argument for being seen early.

They usually become less noticeable. The clumps in the gel tend to settle and your brain learns to ignore them, so most people are much less bothered after a few months even though the floaters are technically still there. Floaters that block your vision and stay that way are uncommon, and there are treatments for those, which is a conversation to have after the urgent question of a tear has been answered.

For new floaters or flashes, yes. Tears usually start in the far outer edge of the retina, and that edge cannot be examined properly through a small pupil. Dilating drops take about 20 to 30 minutes to work and leave you sensitive to light and blurry for close-up work for a few hours. Bring sunglasses, and bring a driver if you are not comfortable driving under those conditions.

Not when you have new floaters or flashes. Our optomap ultra-widefield camera captures up to 200 degrees of the retina in a single image, which is far more than a standard retinal photo, and it gives our doctors a permanent picture to compare against next year. It is an excellent screening tool and we use it at every comprehensive exam. It is still an image. When your symptoms point at a possible tear, our doctors dilate and examine the retina themselves, because the far periphery is where the break hides and a direct look is the standard for that question. The image and the exam answer different parts of the problem, which is why we do both.

They can be. A visual migraine tends to look different from a retinal flash: shimmering zigzag lines or a bright jagged arc, usually in both eyes, building over several minutes and fading in about 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes with a headache afterward. A retinal traction flash is brief, usually in one eye, often off to the side, and it repeats. If you are not sure which one you are having, get it checked rather than deciding on your own.

Yes. A nearsighted eye is longer than average and the retina is stretched thinner across the back of it, and the risk of retinal tears and detachment goes up with the strength of the prescription. If you are significantly nearsighted, treat new floaters and flashes as urgent, and tell us your prescription when you call.

A visit for new floaters, flashes or a shadow in your vision is a medical eye visit, so it is normally billed to your medical insurance rather than to a vision plan, the same way any other medical problem would be. Copays and deductibles depend on your specific plan. Our staff can check your benefits when you call, and you can see the plans we work with on our insurance page.

If you see a curtain or shadow, or your vision has dropped, do not wait for us to open. Go to an emergency room. For new floaters or flashes without vision loss, call the office nearest you when we open and say what you are seeing, and we will get you in.

Our Pasco office at 4820 N Rd 68, inside Walmart, is the closest location for Pasco, Kennewick, Richland and West Richland. Call (509) 543-7953 and tell us you have new floaters or flashes so we can fit you in.

Our Sunnyside office at 2675 E Lincoln Ave, inside Walmart, serves Sunnyside, Grandview, Prosser, Toppenish, Zillah and Mabton. Call (509) 839-4575. Se habla espanol.

Our Hermiston office at 1350 N 1st St, inside Walmart, serves Hermiston, Umatilla, Boardman, Stanfield, Irrigon and the surrounding area, just off I-84. Call (541) 567-5283.

No. You can call any of our three offices directly. We also take urgent referrals from primary care providers, urgent care clinics and other eye doctors, and we are set up to see flashes, floaters and sudden vision changes quickly.