I am contacted by young people from all over the world suffering the angst and anxiety caused by persistent and unrelenting moving shadows in their vision. As my practice has evolved over the last several years I have come to accept the conclusion and realization that most young people with eye floaters are not good candidates for treatment with the YAG laser. Those who we think might be exceptions are often proved not to be exceptions at all. Those who is been told they have had a posterior vitreous detachment(PVD) at the young tender age of 30 end up not having a PVD at all. In some cases it is just the phrase that their local eye doctor uses to describe floaters. I am starting to run out of different and unique ways of responding to these general inquiries. The typical e-mail message or comment goes something like this:
“I am X years old and my floaters look like [ insert description of crystal worms, squiggly lines and dots here ]. My eye doctor told me that my eye is perfectly healthy but that nothing could be done. Do you think I am a candidate for treatment with the laser? Do you think they will get worse/get better over time? Is there something I can take to make it better?”