

POSTERIOR VITREOUS DETACHMENT – you’re going to be just fine:The vitreous is the jelly-like substance that fills the back section of the eye.If a retinal tear has nicked a blood vessel, people might red, pink, or dark-coloured spots floating in their vision. I have had people who have noticed a few flashes of light with or without a floater in their vision who have had a retinal tear. In most cases, the tear is treated with a laser in the ophthalmologist’s rooms, and you don’t need to go to an operating theatre. Depending on the location and severity of the tear, your optometrist would send you to an ophthalmologist straight away, or within a few days. You could think of a retinal tear like a tear in wallpaper on your wall, but in eyes the wallpaper is attached to the vitreous jelly which acts with gravity to make the tear bigger and bigger until the retina detaches.

So if there is a retinal tear, the aim of the game is to get the tear treated so it doesn’t progress to the detachment stage. RETINAL TEAR – it’s serious but the treatment is generally straightforward:Generally a retinal detachment follows on from a retinal tear that has been left untreated.
#Seeing colored spots before your eyes professional#
In my professional life, I have had a patient present with a retinal detachment who just said that they had noticed flashes of light for a week, and had a single floater. If you leave it and a significant portion of your retina detaches, you will see a dark curtain come over your vision. If there is a floater or spot in your vision, it might be red or a dark colour (and there can be one, a few or many of these). Symptoms often start with flashes of light being present in your vision in the lead up to the detachment. Surgery is generally carried out within 24 to 48 hours of your consultation with the surgeon.

Surgical options for a retinal detachment are outlined here. Obviously, the aim of the game is to get your wallpaper (retina) repaired as soon as you can, as, if the amount of retina that peels away is extensive (especially if it includes the macula), the result can be permanent visual impairment (a lot of websites will say blindness, but you although you might have no useful vision you would still be able to tell the difference between light and dark) in that eye. This is called a retinal detachment, and it is similar to having wallpaper peel off a wall.
#Seeing colored spots before your eyes series#
that looks like a series of small red or dark coloured spots, a cobweb, thread of cotton, a mosquito or fly) in your vision, contact and consult your eye care professional as soon as you can.Īs an optometrist, I have people present with a recent onset of either flashes of light or floaters in their vision, and sometimes both at the same time. The take-home message: if you have a recent onset of flashes of light (e.g. Possible eye emergency – flashes of light and floaters in the vision
