What Are Treatments for Floaters in the Eye?

Floaters in the eyes are harmless, but those little dark or grayish specks, spots, strings or lines that you can see, usually peripherally in your field of vision, can be a major distraction and nuisance. Floaters can be even more troubling if they're more centrally located in your eyes. This article explains floaters and addresses various treatments for them.

What Are Floaters?

• What most eye doctors refer to as vitreous opacities, most lay people call "floaters." The back portion of the human eye is composed of a vitreous jelly. As we age, it is not uncommon to have protein deposits or strands develop in this jelly. The deposits cast shadows on the eye's retina, giving the appearance of specks, spots or strands in your field of vision, more noticeable when looking into very bright natural or artificial light and often appearing to move around. That's because as you move your eyes around, the deposits and the corresponding shadows shift along---or float---with your eye movements.

Surgical Treatments for Floaters

• Floaters can be surgically corrected in two ways, but many eye surgeons consider the risks greater than the benign nature of floaters themselves. They can sometimes be broken up or dissipated with laser surgery or with a surgical procedure called a vitrectomy. In this procedure incisions are made into the eye to remove the vitreous fluid, replacing it with an artificial gel-like substance. This is considered radical treatment for something as harmless as floaters, however.

  Most eye doctors don't recommend surgical correction for floaters unless they present more of an annoyance because of a more central location in the eye. In an article in the Health and Behavior section of USA Today, an authority was thus quoted on the subject of laser correction for floaters: "Richard Bensinger, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, said most ophthalmologists believe the procedure is unnecessary. He acknowledged the laser treatment is often successful and carries little risk, but most doctors believe any risk is unacceptable for treating a benign condition like floaters."

Medicinal and Alternative Treatments for Floaters

• In some very uncommon cases of floaters in which infection causes white blood cells to be present in the eye's vitreous fluid, antibiotics or anti-inflammatory medications may help minimize the number of white blood cells, somewhat dissipating the floaters. For the most part, however, most medications are not effective treatments for the more commonly caused floaters.

  There are those who believe that floaters can be prevented or treated with a healthy diet and certain vitamin supplements. Some people with floaters have claimed that products containing iodine have been effective in making floaters less apparent. Others claim positive results with certain herbs, such as milk thistle extract. However, none of these medicinal or alternative treatments have been proven effective in clinical trials.

  Most eye doctors assert that the majority of floaters will dissipate on their own with time. Even if they don't completely go away, they become less noticeable as they fade. We also have a tendency to become accustomed to them and notice them less with the passage of time. Patience and relaxation are crucial to coping with those floating nuisances that plague most of us at some point in our lives.