The Eye Care Blog

Oliver Hill, 60, of Waynesburg, Pa., said many eye doctors are too dismissive of how irritating a floater can be. He compared it to trying to read a book while holding a pencil directly in front of one of your eyes. It can ruin a patient‘s quality of life.

After more than 100 pinpoint zaps from a laser beam during a half-hour visit to a northern Virginia office park, the fuzzball was gone, obliterated within the clear, gelatinous goo that fills the eyeball.

Some people call them floaters. Eye doctors call them "vitreous opacities."
Nearly everybody has floaters or will develop them at some point in life, especially older and nearsighted people. Sometimes shaped like specks or snakes, they float through a person‘s field of vision, and are most easily seen when you look against a light background like a blue sky or a white wall.

However ophthalmologists believe the procedure is unnecessary, as, any risk is unacceptable for treating a benign condition like floaters. Floaters are common and not harmful, and that one should learn to live with it.

Filed under Eye Treatment, Lasik Eye Surgery

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