I’ve lasering away for the last 10 months and loving it. But sometimes I forget my glasses. Now I have no idea if this is related to the laser but I woke up with a dot in the vision of my right eye a few weeks back. (I have a docs appointment in a week) But it’s scared me straight. Laser on = glasses on.
(I don’t blame GF for any of btw. probably spent too much time gawking at things being lasered.)
Might just be a floater. People get more of them when they get a little older. Are you nearsighted?
Chances are you would have to be peering into the pass-through slot to intersect a straight beam of light whose focus diverges beyond the focal point.
The wavelength of the beam won’t penetrate the glass of the lid. Staring at the beam on the material has given me momentary spots because of its brightness, but nothing out of the ordinary.
A persistent change is definitely worth seeing your optometrist about.
Walgreens has an option (for a mere $45.00) to image your retina which gives an excellent benchmark to judge degradation over time. Seemed like a useful physician’s tool.
I can back that up…I have an enormous one in my right eye. Just almost nearly impairs my vision sometimes. 
Oh man, that sux. I’ve got three or four little dark thready ones in my left eye since July. They are driving me nuts. Always looks like a mosquito in the center of my vision when I look up.
I know eventually they (supposedly) migrate out of the way, but I wish they’d hurry up. I’ve had to darken the computer screen.
I was told by my eye doctor that they might possibly be reabsorbed by the body at some point. I’m sure my big one has to some extent, but it’s been there now for several years and I’m not expecting any good surprises on that front. When I first got mine, it scared me because it was so large. There is no cure and the doc said they never recommend removal by surgery, as it’s very dangerous and extremely risky. So, I live with it.
Great. 
I have had them for 50 years, don’t go away. I keep thinking I should hop in one of those NASA centrifuges, turn my head sideways, then have them rev it up to 9 G’s so the floaters go to the side of my eyeball! 
I noticed right away that staring at that bright spot was very strong, but noticed also that the glasses did not address that range of radiation as it was just as bright with and without the glasses.
If you really want to stare into the sun I would suggest getting the tools to do that. the dark iron glasses for welding would allow you to stare deeper and see what you cannot otherwise but you will not see much beyond the area immediately where the light is.
There are also fancy welding glasses that only darken in the presence of such bright light.
I wonder if that would work?
I was doing some research when they first hit…apparently now they can remove the worst ones with…you guessed it…lasers. ( Might just stick my head in Sassy and DIY.). 
I developed a minor retina problem that put wavy distortion and even a big blue spot in my field of view.
Mercifully, miraculously even, it healed after a few years. But what struck me was, while I still had it, how my brain eventually compensated for the problems. After a year, the thing that I thought about every second I had my eyes open was only something I noticed if I started thinking about it.
You will be surprised what you can get used to, if you must. Here’s hoping it clears up though.
(a) The only way you could be harmed by the laser is if you intentionally propped open the pass-thru slot and looked through it while cutting some highly CO2-laser reflective material.
(b) The safety glasses are provided because of regulations and laws created as a result of $$-hungry lawyers. If you were stupid enough to do (a), then you can’t sue GF because they did provide you with the recommended eye protection.
Oh, the world in which we live…
It’s interesting that everyone knows that people get farsighted as they age. They understand the memory goes, joints ache, age spots occur on the skin, even that many have to get up frequently during the night to urinate. But we weren’t warned about floaters or common vitreous detachment. I don’t currently suffer from other age related issues but the eye things unnecessarily scared the bejeezus out of me.
Yep…scared me too. (Happy Cakeday! 
)
Glad to hear that I’m probably just becoming an old fart. 
I wanna try that centrifuge idea though! If not for my vision… Just for fun
My previous Didymium glasses grew legs a while back, but they specifically block the Sodium yellow and thus would hide the flame when the smoke burst into flame, though the drop in smoke would still show. they would also show the copper green quite brightly where it would be hidden in the sodium flame. The very bright high heat would cross the entire spectrum and so still be very bright, by it does block a broad area of the infrared as well, in a different part than the iron green glasses that also block a good part of the visible spectrum as well (hence they look much darker than Didymium)
I did meet another Glassblower, who was a professor in physics for her main job, that had researched it and said that between the didymium and the iron the entire infra-red was blocked and so wore both {clip-on iron over didymium) when working furnace glass. I have looked for someone making glasses using both as colorant but not seen them. Perhaps wearing those under the glasses that came with the GF would be like wearing a belt and suspenders but safest of all and bring that bright dot down if you insist on staring at it.
When watching I try to position myself so I am not looking at it or use my hand to block it,
What would keep them from RE-floating again, though? I have learned how to maneuver mine over to one side when I’m having trouble seeing something, but it always returns.
Tritto, me!
I’ve been taking Taurine. Supposedly breaks up the proteins and makes them smaller. (Guess we’ll see.) No pun intended.
I taped a piece of the shading film intended for windows on my lid as the laser did bother me–my computer is right next to my GF, and would catch it in the corner of my eye, even after learned not to watch it. This film helped tremendously to eliminate annoyance–and potential eye issues (since can be akin to welding arc), and I can comfortably watch it run when I want to.
I think this also helps cut down on other light sources messing with the camera, too.