Instruments Used in Optometry

by Wang M. Sales Executive

The most common mistake made by general people is they think an Optometrist and Ophthalmologist are the same people. However, they are widely different and they have a different set of skills and equipment.

An optometrist is an eye doctor who can diagnose common eye problems like glaucoma, cataracts, etc. However, they cannot perform eye surgeries to treat these conditions. Mostly they deal with examining common visual errors and can correct the refractive problems by prescribing powered glasses or contact lenses. They have an instrument table optometry for performing these diagnoses.

Generally, the optometrist will refer you to a good ophthalmologist if you need some eye surgery or special diagnoses. Ophthalmologists are medical doctors and are highly trained for five years before achieving their degree. They perform more intricate and extensive eye surgeries and checkups. Thus both of them have different kinds of instruments to facilitate the examination of the patients but some instruments may be used by both.

The ophthalmic diagnostic equipment that is used by both optometrists and ophthalmologists are:

● Tonometer

There are many fluids inside a person’s eye and if the pressure fluctuates then it can cause damage to the eyeballs or nerves in the eyes. The ophthalmologist uses a tonometer to measure these pressure conditions and if a person is in immediate danger of having eye damage. The condition created by high pressure in the eye is called glaucoma and it is mostly found in older people.

● Instrument Table

The instrument table optometry is a basic table that has been modified to hold all the other instruments needed by the eye specialist. Some instrument tables come with some attached equipment also.

● Phoropter

This is one of the most important pieces of equipment needed to measure the error in the eyes and it generally leads to prescribing glasses to the patient. The refractive error is measured by the high-power Phoropter, and the optometrist can deduce the amount of error and the type and power of glasses needed to correct it.

● Retinoscope

In certain special cases, the patient cannot give proper feedback to the doctor when using the Phoropter. In these situations, the doctor uses a Retinoscope to measure refractive errors. A highly focused light shines on the eyes of the patient, and the measurements are recorded by the machine. The doctor can find the error by seeing the output of the Retinoscope.

● Snellen Chart

This chart is one of the most common ophthalmic diagnostic equipment and every optometrist and ophthalmologist has one. It consists of a lot of written alphabets in a chart. The alphabets have a diminishing size and the patient has to correctly read the alphabets from the chart.

The author, Wang, has a lot of information about all kinds of instrument table optometry and can correctly help other people in choosing one for them. Moreover, he is also an expert in all types of ophthalmic diagnostic equipment that is used by various optometrists and ophthalmologists.