Medical What is that machine at the opthamologist's clinic?

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The discussion centers around an eye examination experience, specifically the use of an auto-refractor and a slit lamp. The auto-refractor is a machine that quickly assesses refractive errors in the eyes by projecting images and determining when the image appears sharp, providing a preliminary reading for the ophthalmologist. This process helps streamline the examination, allowing the doctor to focus on more patients. The conversation also touches on a follow-up visit where the doctor used a lens holder and a torch to examine the eyes. Initially, there was confusion about whether the doctor was attempting to dilate the pupils, but it was clarified that the slit lamp is typically used for detailed eye examinations. However, since the doctor held the torch at a distance, it was not a slit lamp examination. The discussion highlights the importance of these tools in eye care and the efficiency they bring to the examination process.
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i went to an opthamologist today for an eye checkup.. and his assistant told me to put my chin on some machine and that machine sort of showed me an image of some scenery sort of thing. Now, the machine started to do something.. and i could see the image getting blurred again and becoming sharp again. It finally stopped at some point where the image became sharp. Then it did the same thing for the other eye. The assistant then noted down some numbers from that machine.

what exactly does that machine do, what's it's name.. and how does it know when my eyes see a perfectly sharp image?
 
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That's an auto-refractor. It gets a quick and dirty reading of the eyes, and generally they spit out a little print-out with your refractive errors (if any) that is attached to your chart, so that when you get shown to an exam room, the ophthalmologist's assistant will have a very close starting point to set the phoropter (that machine that you look through with lots of lenses set in internal wheels... "is this better, or this?"). This saves time in the exam room, so the doctor can examine more people in the course of the day.
 
thx a lot man.. now that i have the name of the machine.. i'll go wikip it :D
 
I went to the doctor again for a checkup... and he took a lens holder of some sort and pointed a torch through it into my eye. I could see two circular arcs of light going up and down along the rim of the lens.

what exactly was he doing? Was he trying to dilate my pupils or something??
 
rohanprabhu said:
I went to the doctor again for a checkup... and he took a lens holder of some sort and pointed a torch through it into my eye. I could see two circular arcs of light going up and down along the rim of the lens.

what exactly was he doing? Was he trying to dilate my pupils or something??
Was your chin in a chin rest, and was he pivoting that bright light from side-to-side while looking into your pupil with another instrument? If so, that bright light was from a slit lamp.

http://images.google.com/images?q=slit++lamp&hl=en&safe=off&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title
 
rohanprabhu said:
nothing.. i was sitting in a chair and he held the torch+lens holder at some distance..

what is a slit lamp?

http://www.eyetec.net/group2/M6S1.htm" .
 
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