Is there anything that can be done about these? I have several and they bother me quite a bit. I had asked my eye doctor a few years ago and he said no, but I was wondering if there had been any kind of new procedure developed over the past few years.
If they’re bad enough to the point where they obscure your vision, you could have an operation called a vitrectomy (warning, oogy surgery pics ahead) where they suck all the gel out of the inside of your eyeball - oh yeah, and the floaters too - and refill it with saline. It’s a tad… drastic, though.
No way am I clicking on that link. Nothing freaks me out more than the thought of eye surgery… 
I’m wondering though why they replace the fluid with saline rather than filtering out the floaters and re-using the fluid.
Well, floaters are pretty damned tiny, typically - they just look huge because of their placement. And vitrectomies can be done to remove blood from the eye as well, which you can’t exactly strain out.
I just double-checked and found references to air, gases, or silicone oil being used after vitrectomies, but those are typically the versions that are done while fixing holes/tears inside the eye. So it may be that for a “damn those pesky floaters” vitrectomy, there isn’t any “refilling” done at all and it’s left up to the eye to recreate the vitreous gel on its own.
Well, now that I know what the treatment is, I’m never going to complain about this again. I had one or two as a kid; they’d float through now and then, and that’d be that. Now they’re more like my constant visual companions, but I am not getting my vitreous humor sucked out for something I barely notice unless I stop to think about it.
they also can be noticed more in bright light or against a bright background.
I thought saline solution blinded you. Obviously I don’t understand where/how the brine is going.
I have pthisis bulbi (eye vitreous calls it quits after trauma and eyeball acts like emptying beach ball) and its constant companion, band keratopathy (calcium bands over eye that … hurt). I was told that if/when it gets really bad, before having to take out the eye (enucleation), that a saline solution could be injected, causing complete blindness.
The silver lining is I occasionally get to say “pthisis” badly and, even less frequently, “enucleation.” To my mind, Captain Kirk would strike a pose on the bridge and command: “enucleate!” and something neat (non-eye related) would happen.
The retinal specialist that I see mentioned that there has been some research on substances that (temporarily) liquefy the vitreous humor, with one potential use of this being treatment for floaters.
It looks like a substance called “Vitreosolve” might be what he was talking about. Unfortunately, it looks like it hit some hurdles a few years ago. It would be nice to see some new action on this front, though, as it sounds kind of promising.
http://www.oneclearvision.org/research/pharmacologic-vitreolysis/
I’m pretty sure there’s a laser treatment out there, but I have no idea how effective/safe it is. Google “laser treatment for floaters” and you get a bunch of hits. Most of the websites look pretty amateur though.
I was going to post a hijack here about my son’s vitrectomy, but then I realized that this is GQ, so I started an MPSIMS thread instead. If you care, the thread is here:
Floaters become more common as you get older.
(older—ughhhh)
I’ve had some really annoying ones, that look like specks on the computer monitor, or crud on my glasses. Then I woke up on day with a big, honkin’ one that looked like the ST:TNG bugs floating in the transporter stream.
Since I’m Diabetic, off to the doctor I go!
Family doc checked out my eyeball thoroughly, said it was probably nothing, but gave me an IMMEDIATE referral to an ophthalmologist for a complete Diabetic eye exam. I had my pupils dilated, and I swear, the specialist took off his shoes and socks and crawled inside my eyeballs and stomped around inside.
Verdict: normal.
HOWEVER, I was instructed to contact my doctor IMMEDIATELY if I had darkened field of vision, or flashing lights.
The vitreous humor inside the eye is not a liquid, it’s more of a gel. Floaters are actually strands of coagulated protein (think of egg white) and they aren’t as transparent as the gel. They will eventually break up and disintegrate.
Wipe off your monitor. Wash your glasses. And try to ignore the blasted things.
~VOW
Good lord… Thanks for the info - think I’ll pass until a laser treatment becomes available at some point (and not the amateur sites above).
Yeah, I was wrong about the refill, I think it’s just gas, air, or silicone oil. I assumed those methods were only used for retinal repairs.
As a birder I find them annoying as I often think I’ve seen a flash of movement and it turns out to be nothing but a floater.
Are you talking about the saline?
Yup.
Any relation between floaters, and either internal eye pressure or blood pressure?
I’ve had the same ones since I was a kid - going on decades now.
Does anyone use them to run circles around objects on a white wall as an exercise in concentration and control, or pretend they’re the reticule for your laser vision and aim them at people and cars?
You just precisely described what I used to spend countless hours doing as a kid, mainly on car rides or waiting around doing nothing. Though, I haven’t even thought about or noticed my floaters in ages.
Now I’ve got a smartphone for fighting that kind of boredom… maybe they should make a “floaters” game app!
I have a set of them that have been there for years. They’re just slightly off center, so that if I look at a spot on the ceiling, they’ll be a bit to the side, and if I look directly at them, they move a bit more to the side. But I’ve noticed that I can temporarily reposition them by shooting my gaze quickly in the opposite direction of where I want them to go - sort of like sliding a tray quickly to move objects on it the other way. I can usually get them centered almost perfectly, but when I stop playing these stupid games, they eventually go back to their normal, off-center position.