Receive Answers
Our Blog
Ask an optometrist
Re: Son Didn’t Understand Questions During Eye Exam
Denise wrote:
Our son just had his first eye examination (and he had drops in both eyes). Our son is 7 and we feel that he did not truly understand a lot of the questions that the Dr. asked him. Specifically when he had the machine with the different lenses put in front of him and was asked which one looked better? 1 or 2, 3 or 4, 5 or 6? Our son just answered 2, 4 and 6. The last numbers the Dr. said. We explained to the Dr. that we didn't think he understood and so the Dr. did it again and asked our son again. Still, he gave the same answers 2, 4 and 6. We were told that he has a strong astigmatism and far-sightedness in the left eye. His prescription is as follows: Sph +0.50 +2.25 Cyl -3.75 -3.50 Axs 170 5 The Dr. said that he wanted to see our son again in 2 months time. When we went out front to look at frames, we told the man helping us that we think the prescription might change, just because we don't think our son understood the Dr. Our son confirmed to us that he did not understand the questions for this particular test. This man went back to talk to the Dr. and when he came back he told us that the Dr. said he didn't need to perform that specific test, he was just keeping our son occupied while he was performing another test (Nothing visible that we could see). Is this correct? Why didn't the Dr. just tell us that when we originally mentioned to him that we didn't think our son understood the questions. And why would he perform this test if he didn't need too? Also, my husband and I had our eye's tested as well the week before and the Dr. did this exact same test for us. Was this not required either? Thank you very much for your help.
Dr. Virginia Donati's response:
Hello Denise, I understand your concern. It is often confusing for parents when they learn that their child requires glasses, particularly when the prescription is not straight-forward. Hopefully I can shed some light for you: In a child, when the pupils are dilated the focusing muscles are forced to completely relax. This allows the optometrist to measure the prescription accurately without relying on the often-incorrect responses of a young child. This measurement is done using a test called retinoscopy. During retinoscopy, all the optometrist needs is for the eye to be still enough to measure the reflexes of light inside the eye. Often, asking for a child’s eye to be still is a tall order! At my office, I play a cartoon at the end of the room to keep a child’s attention, but each optometrist has their own methods. In adults, the drops are not instilled into the eyes until after the prescription is measured. This is because these drops are needed only to enlarge the pupil, thus allowing the optometrist to evaluate the health of the back of the eye. Drops are not needed to evaluate the prescription, since adults are (usually) able to tell the difference between a choice of lenses. Finally, I would caution you that it is certainly possible for the prescription to change in your son. It is very common for prescriptions that high to be unstable until the eyes adapt, so I highly-recommend that he attend all follow-up appointments. Good luck! Dr. Donati
No comment