Flashes and Floaters

Migraines

Some people experience flashes of light that appear as jagged lines or “heat waves” in both eyes lasting for 10-20 minutes. These types of flashes are usually caused by a spasm of blood vessels in the brain, called a migraine.

If a headache follows the flashes, it is a migraine headache. However, these flashing light symptoms can occur without a headache. In this case, the light flashes are called ocular migraine or “visual migraine”.

What to Expect from The Eye Examination?

The examination will involve your pupils being dilated. This is a painless process and your ophthalmologist will then observe your retina and vitreous.

Due to the enlargement of your pupils, you may either wait 1 hour for the pupils to return to normal or you will need to make arrangements for someone to drive you home afterwards

Flashes and floaters become more common as we get older. To be safe, you should always have a medical check by an ophthalmologist to ensure there is no damage to your retina.

What Are Floaters?

Floaters are seen as small dark or transparent specks moving in your field of vision. Often you can see them when looking at a plain background such as a blank wall or blue sky. In fact, floaters are tiny clumps of gel or cells inside the vitreous, the clear jelly-like fluid that fills the inside of your eye.

Floaters can have different shapes such as circles, little dots, lines, clouds and cobwebs.

While these shapes look like they are at the front of your eye, they are floating inside. What is seen are the shadows they cast on the retina, the nerve layer at the back of the eye that senses light and allows you to see.