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There are good floaters and bad floaters. Good floaters are those that we all see occasionally, usually against a bright or blue background, they are remnants of old blood vessels in the jelly of the eye (vitreous).
Bad floaters are usually dramatically different from good floaters- occur suddenly, sometimes at rest, and may be associated with a flickering light out of the corner of the eye. These are caused by a shrinkage of the jelly of the eye (vitreous) which might or might not tear the retina and lead to a retinal detachment. New floaters may also be caused by bleeding into the jelly of the eye (vitreous) in diabetes or other retinal problems, as described above.
Bad floaters should always be checked. Tears in the retina can be easily repaired in the office if caught early- but if the retina detaches, it's off to the operating room you go- an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
The classic mistake patients make is to think that if the floaters are gone the next day, they won't go the eye Dr......But the tear occurs with the floaters, the floaters go away the next morning, the patient doesn't get checked, and then the retina detaches a month later.
Just my 0.2.
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