Eye Floaters Treatment

Are pesky eye floaters clouding your vision and hindering your daily activities? Restore your vision and ensure long-lasting clarity with our cutting-edge eye floaters treatment.

Eye Floaters can be seen as darkish shapes floating in your visual field. They can have circular or linear shapes and are often perceived as being ‘in front’ of the eyes. Most are small and you have to look hard to see them. They are seen best against a bright background like a computer screen, white wall or blue sky. Other floaters can be very annoying as they float right into the central visual field.

Our team at George St Eye Centre offer safe and innovative laser treatments for eye floaters in Sydney. The procedure typically lasts no more than 30 minutes for both eyes, and local anaesthesia is administered in the form of eye drops. It doesn’t require an overnight hospital stay, ensuring a quick and convenient experience for our patients.

Book an appointment now and experience the transformative benefits of our eye floater laser surgery.

What Do Eye Floaters Look Like?

Eye floaters come in various forms, and their appearance can vary from person to person. Individuals often describe them in different ways, likening them to spiders, amoebas or clouds. The perception of floaters can be unique, with one person’s description differing significantly from another’s.

If you’re experiencing eye floaters, you might notice:

  • Shadowy shapes
  • Threadlike strands
  • Squiggly lines
  • Spider-like shapes
  • Black or very dark spots

If you notice any of these shapes, consulting an eye care professional can help you understand and manage them effectively.

Can Eye Floaters Happen In Only One Eye or Both Eyes At the Same Time?

Your eyes may age differently, with changes occurring at varying rates. As a result, the gel-like substance inside the eye called the vitreous may shrink faster in one eye compared to the other.

It’s common to experience floaters in one eye at a time. Instances of floaters developing in both eyes simultaneously are uncommon but can occur.

When Do Eye Floaters Typically Begin to Appear?

Eye floaters typically begin to appear between the ages of 50 and 70 for most individuals. In some cases, they can occur in younger people.

If you’re under the age of 50 and notice persistent floaters, it’s advisable to consult your eye care provider. This could potentially indicate an underlying and more serious eye condition that requires attention.

Experience Advanced Eye Floaters Treatments at George St Eye Centre

We revolutionise vision care through our bladeless eye surgeries designed to treat diverse conditions, including eye floaters, cataracts, hypermetropia, astigmatism, myopia (short-sightedness) and presbyopia (long-sightedness).

Our team recognises that successful eye floater surgery begins with a comprehensive assessment. During your initial consultation, we discuss your current eye health, medical history, expectations and eligibility for treatment.

We collaborate with you to create a personalised treatment plan that meets your unique needs and optimises your vision care journey. While no surgery is risk-free, our specialists combine state-of-the-art technology and unrivalled expertise to minimise the risk of complications.

Experience convenient and effective solutions to eye floaters in Sydney. To schedule a no-obligation appointment, simply call our clinic on (02) 9230 0010.

What Is Vitreous Humour?

The vitreous humour is a clear jelly-like substance in the main chamber of the eye located between the lens and the retina. At a young age this fluid is clear and transparent. Over time this fluid can degenerate causing the vitreous humour to lose its form and liquefy. Without the stable vitreous humour, collagen fibres bond together to form clumps and knots. These cast a shadow on the retina to appear as spots, rings, strings or cobwebs in the vision.


How To Treat Eye Floaters

Until recently, the only one way to eradicate floaters was with a surgical procedure known as vitrectomy. This procedure has all the usual risks of an operation performed on the inside of an eye. Now the burden of floaters can be relieved with the use of a Eye Laser Surgery procedure known as vitreolysis. The specialized laser is the Ultra Q Reflex laser from Ellex. In this non-invasive and pain-free procedure, pulses of laser light are used to evaporate the molecules that make up the floaters. The floaters are ‘vaporised’, that is, they are converted to gas. Click here to get in touch with us for more information.

If you have eye floaters, surgery is an effective and safe way to remove them. Hundreds of people have eye surgery to remove floaters every year. New advances in technology now allow for you to have eye floaters vapourised without surgery. This is done with a laser and is known as vitreolysis.Vitreolysis reduces the risk of complications and is pain-free. You come in, have the laser to remove your floaters and go back home on the same day. There is no after-care, though the drops used at the time of the procedure result in blurred vision for a number of hours. This is why people like laser eye floater removal. It’s fast, efficient, and they can return to their lives quickly. You’ll be able to see better with the floaters either completely removed or drastically reduced with just one session. Not all floaters respond to the treatment but this can be predicted at the time of the initial examination.

What Causes Eye Floaters?

Eye floaters are dark specs in your field of vision. You may see grey or black strings, cobwebs, insects, blobs or specks. These things drift around your eye when you move them. More frustratingly, they appear to move away when you try to focus on them directly. 

The majority of eye floaters come with age-related changes. These changes directly occur in the jelly-like substance inside of your eyes. The jelly-like substance (vitreous) slowly turns more liquid with age. When this happens, microscopic fibres start to adhere and clump together. This casts microscopic shadows on the retina of your eye. The shadows are what we call floaters, and they get more pronounced over time. 

How to Get Rid of Eye Floaters?

 How you treat your eye floaters depends largely on the root cause. Age is the main cause, but you have to treat any underlying conditions first. It is possible to ignore the floaters or simply get used to them after time. It doesn’t necessarily mean surgery. 

One option is for the surgeon to remove the vitreous from your eye and replace it with a synthetic gel. This involves cutting three small slits in your eye in an operating theatre and is known as a vitrectomy. The second option is through laser eye floater removal. The laser can break up the floaters by vaporisation and is known as vitreolysis.

How do You Get Floaters in the Eye?

We mentioned that aging is the most common way to get floaters in the eye. But, inflammation is another common cause of floaters in the eye. Your eye releases inflammatory debris, and you mistake these for floaters. 

A second possibility is bleeding in your eye. There are several conditions that can cause this including diabetes, blocked blood vessels and hypertension. The blood can look like floaters. A third option is a torn retina. This is more serious, and it can lead to permanent damage to your vision if you don’t treat it. 

Are Eye Floaters Serious?

Yes and no. While eye floaters can be annoying to deal with, they’re not necessarily dangerous. If they start interfering with your vision, you do want to make an appointment with your eye doctor to discuss your options. 

If you notice a sudden influx of eye floaters, you wake up and notice your floaters appear bigger, you have flashes of light in your vision, or you lose your peripheral vision, it’s time to see an eye doctor. This could be a sign that something is going wrong in your eyes. 

How to Get Rid of Eye Floaters Permanently?

A procedure is how you get rid of eye floaters permanently. Whether this means having laser vitreolysis to break up your floaters or surgery in the form of vitrectomy. Both work well. 

The laser can break the floaters up, so they don’t clump back together. The eye floater surgery known as vitrectomy removes the gel from your eyes and replaces it with a solution to help your eye stay the same shape. This can get rid of all or most of the floaters.