What Is Slit Lamps?

by Wang M. Sales Executive

The first thing that a patient notices when he or she goes to an eye doctor is that there are several small and big instruments positioned all around the room. One of the most important instruments used for all kinds of eye examinations is slit lamps.

Many people wrongly think that the eye chart is the one instrument used to see the condition of the eye. But eye specialists also use slit lamps to find out the condition of the interior of the eye and if there is any chance of infection or disease. Aumega III slit lamp has a binocular microscope that has stereoscopic magnification settings. It is also fitted with a high-power light source, unlike any other light source you have ever seen.

The high-powered light can be adjusted to suit the needs of the eye doctor and the part of the eye being examined. The specialist can change the intensity and diameter of the light source to pinpoint certain foreign elements in the eye. They can also change the color of the light source. Different infectious germs react differently to various colored lights. Thus the change of the color of the light source can give various indications to doctors about the type of infection.

The eye chart dongle is a chart specifically designed to test the power of the patient’s eyes. It has a lot of symbols and writings on them. The symbols and letters at the beginning of the chart are big in size. However, they tend to grow smaller at the end of the chart.

A patient who has some refractive errors in their eyes is made to sit at a certain distance from the eye chart. Then the patient has to look at the chart and tell the symbols and letters that he can see. The patient will not have any problems while reading the top of the chart but as the symbols and letters start growing smaller, the patient will have difficulties in reading them.

The eye doctor can look at the specific line from which the patient has reading problems and can diagnose the error accurately. Sometimes there can be inconsistency in the patient’s readings and in these situations the patient is put under the Aumega III slit lamp for a better and computerized examination of the eyes. Thus in this way the eye specialist can accurately find out the percentage and angle of refractive error the patient has. Then according to the results, the doctor will prescribe the patient eyeglasses or contact lenses.

It also happens that a patient may be familiarized with the symbols of the eye chart dongle and has memorized the symbols unconsciously. Then the doctor has to use another eye chart with different symbols to find out the refractive eye errors.

The author, Wang is very knowledgeable about the Aumega III slit lamp that is used by eye specialists. He is also experienced in dealing with all kinds of eye chart dongle.