You’ve probably seen these little buggers sometime or another in your eyesight. Everyone has them. Perhaps you've seen them when reading the paper or working outside in bright sunlight -- these small, moving spots in your field of vision are called “floaters.”
Generally speaking, they won’t interfere with your sight, although some large ones can cast shadows over your internal vision --- this typically happens in certain lighting conditions. People usually get used to floaters, and they are barely noticeable much of the time.
Floaters tend to dart away as you attempt to look at them and may consist of black or gray dots, squiggly lines, ring-shaped, web-like, or thread-like strands. Most floaters are caused by small flecks of the protein collagen. They are typically benign.
How They Become Floaters
The back two-thirds compartment of the eyeball is filled with a gel-like substance known as the vitreous humor. This provides a pathway for light coming through the eyeball lens. The vitreous connects to the retina, a group of light-sensitive cells, which catch images and relay them to the brain.
As we age, the vitreous and its millions of collagen fibers begin to shred. These fibers then begin to accumulate in the vitreous humor, causing floaters. Vitreous fluid changes begin to happen between 50 and 75 years of age, and the gel begins to shrink, pulling away from the retina. Floaters are a natural part of the aging process. By age 60, a quarter of us will have floaters with two-thirds of us experiencing floaters by our 80s. Floaters are more prevalent in the near-sighted, diabetics or those who have had cataract surgery.