Diagnosis of Floaters

Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List

| A |

| B |

| C |

| D |

| E |

| F |

| G |

| H |

| I |

| J |

| K |

| L |

| M |

| N |

| O |

| P |

| Q |

| R |

| S |

| T |

| U |

| V |

| W |

| X |

| Y |

Floaters are usually harmless and do not affect sight. However, itâ€™s important to go for regular sight tests and tell your optometrist (commonly known as an optician) if you think you may have floaters.

If a floater appears all of a sudden, or there is a rapid increase in the number of floaters, you should see your optometrist straightaway. This can be a sign of retinal tears or detachment, and your optometrist will need to examine the hard-to-see parts of the retina to check for this. The optometrist will only be able to see the floater if they are quite large, so itâ€™s important to explain your symptoms to them.

By looking through your pupil, the optometrist can see a small part of the retina. You may have a procedure called dilation, in which eye drops are used to make your pupil wider, so that the optometrist can examine all of your retina using a instrument called an ophthalmoscope. You may find that your vision is a bit blurry and you are sensitive to light for a few hours after the examination.

The optometrist may also carry out other tests, such as asking you to look in different directions; pushing on the eye with a special instrument to see more of the retina; and using a very bright light to look at the retina more closely.