Table of contents:
- What are flies and how do they appear
- Why there are flies before the eyes
- When to see a doctor urgently
2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
If you ignore some of the symptoms, you can lose your sight altogether.
What are flies and how do they appear
What we call flies - moving dark dots, translucent filaments, tiny subtle "tadpoles" that sometimes appear in front of the eyes - these are the smallest opacities What you can do about floaters and flashes in the eye, the shadows that the vitreous of the eye casts on the retina. To understand, take a look at the picture.
The vitreous humor is a clear, jelly-like substance that occupies most of the eye. It is thanks to him that the eyeballs have a round shape. On the one, front side, the vitreous body is limited by the lens. From the side and back - the retina.
The task of the vitreous body is to conduct focused light from the lens to the retina - light-sensitive cells that capture the resulting image and send it to the brain through the optic nerve.
But here it is important to understand one nuance. The vitreous humor, although transparent, is not completely homogeneous. It is woven from the finest collagen fibers, the spaces between which are filled with fluid. Sometimes, due to the natural movement of the fibers, so-called gaps are formed in the gaps - areas where the density of the substance that makes up the vitreous body is reduced. The sensitive retina picks up these changes. And we see barely distinguishable glassy "worms". Something like this:
Other figures - dots, "tadpoles", flashes of light - are also consequences of the "shadow" that the vitreous body casts on the retina for various reasons. And these reasons can be both completely harmless and dangerous.
Why there are flies before the eyes
There are 10 common reasons.
1. You may have risen too quickly to your feet
Or overdid it with exercise. Or maybe overheated in a bathhouse or outside in the heat. The resulting pressure surge ruptured the tiny blood vessel that feeds the retina. Flashes and Floaters in Your Eyes: When to See the Doctor. Maybe not just one. Tiny droplets of blood trapped in the vitreous are perceived as flies before the eyes.
Fortunately, small hemorrhages quickly clear out of the eye by themselves, and dots or flashes of light disappear.
2. Or tired
When the eyes are stressed for a long time, it also raises the blood pressure inside the retina. Often with the same outcome as in the paragraph above.
3. You may have rubbed your eyes too actively
Or accidentally stumbled upon an object. The vitreous body pressed down the Flashes of light retina, and the retina sent “non-formatted” signals to the brain, which he interpreted as the appearance of dots or flashes of light before the eyes.
Yes, the famous phrase "sparks from the eyes" is about the same. When hitting the head, the vitreous body, due to inertia, presses on the retina, and "sparks" are the consequences.
When harmony within the eye is restored, flies and flashes of light disappear.
3. This is how hypertension can manifest itself
High blood pressure also affects the blood vessels inside the retina. With a sharp increase in pressure, the vessels can rupture, and the smallest drops of blood enter the vitreous body.
4. Or migraine
Sometimes flies and flashes of light are the harbingers of another attack. Doctors call this form of severe headache migraine with aura Migraine with aura.
5. Age-related changes in the eye
With age, the structure of the vitreous body changes. It shrinks, the liquid in the spaces between the collagen fibers becomes less, the lacunae, respectively, more. Therefore, the older we get, the more often flies and "worms" appear before our eyes.
By the age of 60, such eye changes affect every fourth What you can do about floaters and flashes in the eye. By 80, two out of three people are diagnosed with this problem.
6. The effect of certain eye medications
We are talking about the preparations Eye Floaters: Symptoms and Causes, which are injected into the vitreous body. Immediately after injection, tiny air bubbles may form inside the eye. They cast a shadow on the retina, and we see flies.
Such bubbles are not dangerous because they are removed very quickly.
7. Detachment of the vitreous body
The vitreous body, which contracts with age, pulls the retina with it. And at some point it can break away from it. This situation is called detachment of the vitreous humor, it is common and usually does not threaten vision. Although it somewhat increases the number of flashes and flies before the eyes.
8. Retinal detachment
In about one in six people, the vitreous contracts so rapidly that it causes the retina to rupture. And everything would be fine, but the fluid from the vitreous body penetrates into this gap and separates the retina from the tissues that feed it.
Retinal detachment makes itself felt by an increase in the number of flies and flashes in front of the eyes. And this condition already needs to be treated, otherwise the inner shell of the eye will cease to perform its functions, and then the risk of losing sight will increase.
9. Glaucoma
This is the name of a disease in which the pressure of the fluid inside the eye increases sharply. Glaucoma gradually destroys retinal cells, which is accompanied by more frequent flies and flashes of light than usual.
If left untreated, glaucoma will almost certainly lead to blindness.
10. Uveitis
This is an infectious disease in which the choroid of the eyes becomes inflamed. In this case, the retina may be affected - hence the flashes of light in front of the eyes.
In addition, uveitis sometimes results in the release of inflammatory particles into the vitreous humor. Their brain also identifies as flies.
Posterior uveitis is also an extremely dangerous condition that can lead to complete blindness.
When to see a doctor urgently
In the vast majority of cases, the flies that appear before the eyes are harmless and quickly pass by themselves. But the risk that they can be a symptom of dangerous diseases still remains.
Therefore, be sure to consult an ophthalmologist as soon as possible if Floaters and Flashes in the Eyes:
- flies or flashes of light begin to appear before your eyes at the most unpredictable moments - literally for no reason;
- their number is increasing dramatically;
- you notice blurred vision: from time to time, a foggy or dark veil seems to fall in front of your eyes;
- dots or flashes are accompanied by eye pain that does not go away for several minutes or longer;
- a large number of flies that do not disappear appeared after an eye injury or surgery.
The doctor will examine and determine the cause of your condition. Depending on this, treatment will be prescribed (up to surgery).
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