If you’re seeing shadows in your vision, don’t worry. Shadows can result from floaters, a benign, age-related eye condition.
Black dots in your vision can be irritating, but since they occur within your eye, you can only wait for them to fade.
Floaters can cause anxiety if they’re unexpected or if you’re under 50. Visit the doctors at Total Vision La Mesa for a thorough eye exam to determine the root cause of your floaters and detect any ocular problems that may be causing them.
Can Floaters Cause Shadows in Your Vision?
Many eye floaters are clumps of collagen that can cast shadows on your retina. They can appear as dark spots, cobwebs, or strings and drift and move around your vision.
Age-related changes can occur in the vitreous, a gel-like substance within the eye, as it liquefies and contracts. As light passes through the cornea and lens, it passes through the vitreous to reach the retina, but floaters can get in the way, casting shadows on your retina.
Causes of Floaters
Most often, aging is the primary cause of floaters. The vitreous becomes less gel-like and more liquified, and the eye becomes crowded with cells and particles that clump together, leading to visual disturbances.
Some less frequent causes of eye floaters can include:
- Uveitis, or inflammation inside the eye
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Eye injury or trauma
- Previous cataract surgery
Floaters can be a natural part of aging. By age 70, many people experience floaters. In most cases, floaters dissipate naturally or become less noticeable.
Symptoms of Floaters
Floaters don’t typically cause pain or discomfort, and instead, symptoms include:
- Small shapes in your vision
- Spots that move as your eyes shift
- Spots that are most noticeable when looking at plain, blank backgrounds
- Strings that settle and drift away
Why Am I Seeing Shadows in My Vision at Night?
If you’re seeing shadows in your vision at night, it could be due to a number of reasons, including:
- Floaters: Small, shadowy shapes caused by particles in the vitreous (the gel-like substance in your eye) can become more noticeable at night. These floaters may look like spots, threads, or cobwebs, especially when looking at light sources or bright surfaces. They can appear more prominent in dim or low light.
- Low-light settings: Your eyes struggle more in dim light. Shadows and flickering shapes are more noticeable because the rods (cells in your retina responsible for low-light vision) are more sensitive in these conditions.
- Night blindness: Some individuals have trouble seeing in dim light, a condition called night blindness. It can make you more aware of shadows or dark spots because your eyes are less able to adjust to the lack of light.
If the shadows are persistent or accompanied by other symptoms like flashes of light, pain, or loss of vision, you should contact your eye doctor as soon as you can to help catch and prevent any eye issues from worsening.
Are Eye Floaters an Emergency?
In many cases, floaters aren’t a significant concern, and treating floaters has more risks than benefits. However, if you experience co-occurring symptoms, you should seek immediate emergency care. Symptoms include:
- Developing eye pain
- Floaters occurring more often or with greater intensity
- Losing peripheral vision
- Experiencing unusual blurry vision or vision loss
- Seeing light flashes
If you’re seeing floaters, visit Total Vision La Mesa to assess your eyes and determine if it’s caused by normal aging or something more serious, like a retinal tear, retinal detachment, or a vitreous hemorrhage.
- Retinal tear: the liquified vitreous can begin to pull on the retina, and the stress can cause the retina to tear completely
- Retinal detachment: if a retinal tear is left untreated, the retina can detach from the eye, leading to permanent vision loss
- Vitreous Hemorrhage: blood vessel leaks, injury, or infection can cause eye bleeding and floaters
How Are Eye Floaters Treated?
Eye floaters are generally harmless, and while they can disrupt your vision, they rarely cause problems. If your floaters are a symptom of diabetic retinopathy, uveitis, or an eye injury, treating the underlying problem can help alleviate them.
In severe cases of eye floaters, laser removal or surgery may be considered. Laser surgery, or vitreolysis, breaks up the floaters to make them less noticeable. However, laser surgery can be a hit or a miss, and with the severe risk of retinal damage, it’s not widely used.
A surgical procedure, vitrectomy, removes the vitreous and replaces it with a sterile salt solution to maintain the eye’s shape. With both options, there’s no guarantee that the eye floaters will be broken up or removed, and they don’t prevent new floaters from forming.
Optometrists agree that, in most cases, leaving floaters alone is the best course of action. They become less noticeable over time, and you learn to adapt to having them.
Visit Total Vision La Mesa for an Eye Exam
Schedule an appointment at Total Vision La Mesa to address your eye concerns. While most floaters are harmless and don’t need intervention, discussing the symptoms with your optometrist during a comprehensive eye exam can help determine that your eyes’ structures are healthy.
