{"id":2630,"date":"2024-10-21T13:10:22","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T17:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.warbyparker.com\/learn\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2024-11-14T12:27:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:27:50","slug":"types-of-eye-floaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/types-of-eye-floaters","title":{"rendered":"Types of Eye Floaters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Eye floaters. They\u2019re pretty common. In fact, most people experience them at some point in their life. But did you know that eye floaters come in many forms? They can look quite different to different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we\u2019ll focus our discussion on the various types of floaters. For additional information on eye floaters, you can hop on over to one of these related posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/eye-floaters\">What Are Eye Floaters?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/when-should-i-worry-about-eye-floaters\">When Should I Worry About Eye Floaters?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Types of Eye Floaters and What They Mean<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the ways that eye floaters can look different from person to person is by the shape they take. The \u201ctypes\u201d of floaters listed below are just named for their shape\u2014the shapes don\u2019t really <em>mean<\/em> anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Floaters occur when the vitreous (the jelly-like substance inside our eyes) pulls away from the inner surface of the eye. (That may sound a little weird, but it naturally happens as we age.) When this happens, protein fibers \u201cfloating\u201d about in the vitreous cast shadows on your retina\u2014that\u2019s what you see as floaters. So, the shape of the floater simply boils down to the formation of those floating protein fibers and how they clump together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Diffuse Floaters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>These floaters are sometimes referred to as \u201ccloud-like floaters.\u201d As you may suspect, they\u2019re so named because they tend to look like clouds\u2014typically rounded in shape. They may appear like small dots or specks. In fact, sometimes people even mistake these floaters for dust or even small bugs (likely because floaters can appear to dart away when you try to look at them).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fibrous Strand Floaters (aka Cobweb Floaters)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes the protein fibers in the vitreous clump together, forming strand-like shapes. They might look a bit like cobwebs, hairs, or strings. To some people, these floaters look like squiggly or wavy lines in their vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Weiss Ring Floaters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Ring-shaped floaters are sometimes called Weiss rings. A ring-shaped circular floater in the eye may occur when the separation of tissue happens near the optic nerve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Eye Floater Variations in Color<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Another way that eye floaters can vary in appearance is by color. Often, floaters are described as black or grey, but they could also look white or even transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, while some people may describe seeing black squiggly lines, others may see round transparent floaters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Floaters and Flashes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As the vitreous separates from the back of the eye, it might pull at the retina. Because of this, some people experience flashes of light in the eye in addition to seeing floaters. Some people may notice this more in dim lighting, while others may not notice it at all. Floaters and flashes may occur for weeks or months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">No Matter the Type of Eye Floater\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Just remember that, more often than not, floaters (and flashes) are perfectly normal and harmless. Black, grey, stringy, or blobby\u2014they\u2019re all just shadows of protein strands floating about in your eyeball jelly. (Sounds appealing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With that said, be sure to always let your eye doctor know if you have new floaters or are experiencing flashes in your vision. Even though these symptoms are normal, they <em>can<\/em> sometimes be caused by other conditions, and only your eye doctor can check for that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eye floaters. They\u2019re pretty common. In fact, most people experience them at some point in their life. But did you know that eye floaters come in many forms? They can look quite different to different people. In this article, we\u2019ll focus our discussion on the various types of floaters. For additional information on eye floaters, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":2634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eye-health"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Types of Eye Floaters | Warby Parker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eye floaters look different from person to person. Learn more about their various shapes and colors here.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/types-of-eye-floaters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Types of Eye Floaters | Warby Parker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eye floaters look different from person to person. Learn more about their various shapes and colors here.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/types-of-eye-floaters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Warby Parker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-21T17:10:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-14T17:27:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.stage.warby.io\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/types-of-eye-floaters.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Teddy Hesterman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Teddy Hesterman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Types of Eye Floaters | Warby Parker","description":"Eye floaters look different from person to person. 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