Associate Professor of Orthopedic expert,Brigham Hostpital
Do you feel white circles passing in front of your eyes and this issue has caused you stress? In this article, we want to say what is the cause of these white rings in the field of vision. eye floater is a term used by doctors to describe the presence of spots in the visual field.
What's an eye floater, why it occurs, what is wrong, how many eye floats there are, and whether they need treatment or not are topics that we will address below.
Introduction
eye floaters are shadows, strings and rings that appear in the field of vision and can be seen in the form of spots and dark spots.
They can be white rings that appear in our field of vision and Most of These floaters are caused by aging.
And they are suspended shadows in our field of vision.
eye floaters, Weiss rings of the visual field
Weiss ring means white ring. In German, the word weiss means white, and floaters are actually rings that appear in the field of vision and cause annoyance to the person without diminishing our vision. It causes the person to lose the clarity of his vision.
They can sometimes take away a person's clear vision without causing vision problems and reduced vision.
One of the characteristics of floaters, which are seen as dark spots or white rings, is that they do not reduce a person's vision.
What are the types of eye floaters in appearance?
People with eye floaters describe different shapes for the floating system in their visual field. These shadows have a special name due to the movements they have in the visual field, and their types are as follows:
The floater can be in the form of black dots or gray spots, it can be in the form of yarn strands, it can be in the form of strange lines with strange shapes, it can be in the form of spider webs, and finally it can be in the form of rings called weiss rings.
What are the specifications of weiss rings?
The general feature of eye floaters is that when you look at a white paper or a clear blue sky, you will see them more clearly in your field of vision and This problem is bothering you.
One of the characteristics of weiss rings and these circular floaters is that they do not disappear when you look at them, but one of their obvious characteristics is that people say that over time they realize that they see less of their presence, in other words with over time, understanding and seeing them decreases due to brain adaptation.
That is, the human brain has strategies through which it becomes accustomed to deny the spots and rings that are created in the visual field and not see them after a while.
In this way, the person gradually realizes that he or she does not see dark spots in his or her field of vision as before.
What is the common age of floaters?
When do weiss rings appear in the visual field?
After the age of 50, it is said that the likelihood of seeing these dark spots or weiss rings in the visual field increases. People who are in their 50s or have cataract surgery are more prone to experience seeing weiss rings and dark spots or eye floaters.
What is the cause of floaters, dark spots or weiss rings on the front of the eye?
It is said that the most common cause of these floaters is actually aging. In other words, eye floaters become more common as we age and pass through middle age, This is explained by the fact that as the various organs and tissues of the body change with age, the vitreous which is a jelly-like tissue behind the lens and the posterior chamber of the eye also undergoes changes and decays, its jelly consistency decreases and its volume decreases.
The protein strands in the structure of this jelly tissue behind the eye begin to break down after the age of about 45. Groups of broken down proteins clump together and their shadow falls on the retina.
What we see as dark spots or white rings are actually the shadows that these protein accumulations cast on the retina.
In addition to aging, there may be disorders, problems, and diseases that cause the formation of floaters or weiss rings or dark spots in the visual field.
These disorders include ocular trauma and some intraocular diseases, such as retinal tumors, retinal detachment, posterior chamber hemorrhage, and vitreous hemorrhage, Crystal-like deposits, which accumulate in vitreous, Diabetic retinopathies and eye tumors and sometimes after some surgery.
treatment
We said that most cases of eye floaters that have dark spots and weiss rings in the visual field will almost never need medical treatment. If these spots or rings are bothering you, you should try to get them out of your sight. One of the solutions that doctors suggest to patients to get rid of these dark spots or weiss rings is to move your eyes up and down and thus cause these pieces of protein to go to the sides of the eye and not in the field of vision.
If these floating objects are large in number, your ophthalmologist should suggest surgery called vitrectomy if necessary.
Vitrectomy is performed in such a way that the surgeon removes the vitreous and replaces it with sterile saline solution, but this surgery can have complications. Complications of this surgery include the following:
Retinal detachment, retinal rapture, and cataract
However, complications of this this surgery under the supervision of a skilled surgeon has a low risk of developing. If these problems occur, serious damage to your vision is likely.
Who gets the most eye floating?
People after the age of 50 and people with severe myopia, are more likely to develop eye floaters than other people and at a younger age.
In what cases should we see a doctor?
- If you see floating objects, you should see a doctor immediately.
- If you notice a sudden increase in the number of spots or rings in front of your visual field.
- If you have lost your lateral vision.
- If you see shadows of light and flashes of light.
- If changes start suddenly and are getting worse rapidly.
- And in the presence of spots and floating objects after head and neck trauma or trauma to the eye or after surgeries of the eye and around the eye.