What the heck? These little shadows are known as floaters, and like gray hair and laugh lines, they’re just a natural—if ...

“Your retina is detached,” explained Dr. Philip Kurochkin. “When a retinal detachment occurs, it’s an eye emergency and needs to be treated immediately or permanent vision loss is possible.

Poorly managed diabetes can also trigger eye floaters. "Uncontrolled diabetes can cause floaters if new blood vessels grow and leak blood or cause a retina detachment," Dr. Wachler says.

It degenerates as people age, causing tiny strands to stick together and cast shadows on the retina, which people see as floaters, according to the National Eye Institute. They move as the eyes move.

Eye floaters are more common as you get older and if you’re nearsighted. The biggest concern is they can cause retinal tears. “If a tear develops in the retina, fluid can get underneath that ...

The retina is the light-sensitive nerve layer in the back of the eye that receives visual images and transmits them to the brain. The vitreous shrinks and pulls away from the retina with age.

However, there are risks, including bleeding and retinal tears, and the surgery may not remove all the floaters. Another treatment used infrequently for impaired vision caused by eye floaters is ...

It’s the shadow of the fibers reflecting on the retina that people see. Although eye floaters don’t occur in everyone, at least 60 percent of people experience them by age 65, says Dugel.

Some people call them floaters. Eye doctors call them "vitreous opacities." Emily Flynn called hers "a little fuzzball," and she flew halfway around the world to have it removed. After more than ...