Symptoms

Symptoms of eye floaters may include:

• Small shapes in your vision that appear as dark specks or knobby, transparent strings of floating material
• Spots that move when you move your eyes, so when you try to look at them, they move quickly out of your visual field
• Spots that are most noticeable when you look at a plain bright background, such as a blue sky or a white wall
• Small shapes or strings that eventually settle down and drift out of the line of vision

When to see a doctor

Contact an eye specialist immediately if you notice:

• Many more eye floaters than usual
• A sudden onset of new floaters
• Flashes of light in the same eye as the floaters
• Darkness on any side or sides of your vision (peripheral vision loss)

These painless symptoms could be caused by a retinal tear, with or without a retinal detachment — a sight-threatening condition that requires immediate attention.