Retinoscopy

Retinoscopy is the process in which the visual examination of the eyes is done. The process of retinoscopy measures and determines the refractive error in the patient’s eye and accordingly determines a proper prescription for corrective lenses.

An instrument called Retinoscope is used by the proffestional in a dim light setting for the same purpose. Retinoscope is an instrument which uses refracted light which is send off the pupil, this helps the doctor to determine whether a patient needs corective lens or not.

Various Types Of Retinoscopy:
There are mainly two types of retinoscopy. They are:

• Static Retinoscopy: In this type of retinoscopy the refractive error of the patient’s vision is determined.In Static Retinoscopy, the patient’s eyes are fixed on a target at optical infinity to relax accommodation.
• Dynamic Retinoscopy: In this type of retinoscopy is done when patient has active accomodation to view a target from the near. In Dynamic Retinoscopy, the patient’s eye are fixated on a target which is near, instead of at distance. The term dynamic is used because the patient’s accommodation is active.
• Bell Retinoscopy: It is a type of technique to judge the refractive error of the eye. In this technique a bell which is suspended infront of the patient’s eye. A steel ball of half a inch is attached to the bell which is the fixation target. The retinoscopy is performed by the proffestional from a distance of 20 inches. Now, the patient is asked to fixed his eyes on that target. Now, the examiner moves the target slowly towards the patient till the neutral position is attained which is nearly 15 -16 inches away from the patient.
• MEM Retinoscopy: It is also one of the techniques to check the refractive error in the patient’s eye. In this technique a fixature target must be placed at such a distance from where the reader is able to read it. The focus of the patient must be on the retinoscope plane. The examiner will place the lens infront of the patient till the neutrality is achieved. The examiner must remove and place the lenses in such a manner so that the accomodative status of the patient do not change.