Help me invent a new form of eye exam - using math/science and not guesses

Bear with me....

I have a beginning of an idea in my head to re-invent the eye exam. The problem is we use the standard eye chart and ask folks to read it while switching lenses, which view is better or worse. We find the answer and switch lenses again to further refine the prescription untill we can no longer find an improvement and that is the prescription we get stuck with. It doesn't always work that easily. If you guess wrong you won't know it until after you have spent hundreds of dollars on new glasses,, and by then, it's too late. There has to be a better way.

Now I'm not good in math but it seems to me if you had a variable that is known, such as 20/20 vision you should be able to take some measuring device and measure the eyes inner focal point and work backwards from 20/20 to get a better, more accurate prescription, without having to guess.

What do you think?

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I calculated the expense of glasses and compared it to the cost of LASEK (not LASIK). I got the surgery.

20/10 in my left eye, 20/15 in my right.
No more astigmatism.
Color correction.
Depth perception.
And most importantly ... no more glasses.

Let me know if you're curious at all.

a reply to: Snarl

Can't do it. I am blind in my right eye since birth and farsighted in my good left eye - But, I also had a detached retina in my good left eye due to an accident during Hurricane Katrina - they fixed that with a scleral buckle and I can see 20/20 in that eye with glasses or contacts. They will not perform lasik on me due to the high risk of something going wrong and me going blind for life. I already looked into it. (you were lucky.. they screw up peoples eyes all the time)

Say, do you have any thought on my above idea?

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I calculated the expense of glasses and compared it to the cost of LASEK (not LASIK). I got the surgery.

20/10 in my left eye, 20/15 in my right.
No more astigmatism.
Color correction.
Depth perception.
And most importantly ... no more glasses.

Let me know if you're curious at all.

Good for you, my brother in law got the surgery and he's completely blind at night and from where they cut his eye open it now flaps down sometimes.... For every good testimonial there is a horror story...

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Sorry to hear you can't benefit from laser correction.

In the years I was consigned to wearing glasses, I did find one guy who was really good with corrective lenses. I mean there was never anyone else who ever came close to doing the kind of work he did.

Making glasses has got to be an art. I'd never be able to figure out the math you're talking about ... but I will say this. The machine that fixed my eyes was driven by a computer ... and I know they run off of numbers. If a machine can do for my eyes what I've experienced, what you're talking about would be like looking at the wheels of a Ferrari and backwards engineering a wagon wheel.

I'm sure there are practical reasons for doing so, but marketing would suck.

I wish you the very best of luck in your endeavors, my brother. PM me if you figure it out.

a reply to: jheated5

LASIK = a cut
LASEK = no cut

I ride a Harley when weather permits. LASIK would have ended that.

Sorry to hear a member of your family had such a terrible experience ... I really am. Vision is truly a gift.

originally posted by: Snarl
a reply to: jheated5

LASIK = a cut
LASEK = no cut

I ride a Harley when weather permits. LASIK would have ended that.

Sorry to hear a member of your family had such a terrible experience ... I really am. Vision is truly a gift.

It's all good I think he got the procedure when it was in it's infancy so the success rate was a lot lower then. I on the other hand probably can't benefit from any corrective surgery either because even though I wear glasses everyday my eyesight gets worse over the years so it would probably be a temporary fix for me... I'm glad it has worked well for you BTW

During my exam, they did a lot more than have me look at a chart. They measured my eye, took photos of the inside of my eye, examined the blood vessels in the eye, sprayed horrible stuff in my eyes made me look through hundreds of different shades of lenses, and the worst, touching my eye with this machine and then blowing puffs of air into my eye, all to tell me I am near sighted with an astigmatism in one eye.

I would rather see a dentist then go back even though my eyes are clearly getting worse. I really can't see what I am typing anymore. Thankfully the font gets bigger on ats once a reply has been posted, that is the only way I can check for errors anymore.

I would assume a number of people with big fancy degrees have already thought of this and it's not possible, at least yet.

Fully admit to knowing next to nothing about the eye, but I don't know if you could actually take those measurements, and I also think there is more than just that factor.

I'm all for a more accurate eye test. I hate that lens flipping portion too because sometimes I feel like I'm guessing, but I think that's built into the test. I got my eyes checked about a week ago and probably irritated the doc like crazy by saying they look the same, and making her change the letters on the board because I couldn't help but memorize them. I think it's probably far more precise than it seems. I don't have any clue if this is accurate, but I would think the brain comes into play too, so you would have to be able to measure everything in the system.

a reply to: Domo1

I don't have any clue if this is accurate, but I would think the brain comes into play too, so you would have to be able to measure everything in the system.

You are correct ... the brain is a factor.

Post surgery, my brain had to normalize what messages the optic nerves were sending. It normally takes 6 to 14 months for this to happen. In the interim, I saw ghost images of lights at night.

Really good point to bring up.

a reply to: Snarl

Yikes, that must have been a little freaky.

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: Snarl

Yikes, that must have been a little freaky.

Nah. Minor. About the five month mark, I did begin to wonder if it was permanent ... and then one day it was gone. My son had a PRK procedure (very very similar to LASEK) while he was in the Army, and he told me what to expect.

The biggest PITA is you have to wear one set of flimsy-thin contact lenses for a week to protect your cornea. I cheated a bit and cleaned them carefully when they got gritty. Might also be why there was absolutely zero evidence of scarring afterwards. YMMV

If you're considering something like this ... make darned sure you check the manufacturer's date of the laser your doc is going to use. They keep getting better and better, so it's in your own personal best interest to find a clinic with new equipment. Also, it's the machine that does all of the correction. The doc just peels back the epithelial layer and watches the machine work.

Again, if anyone has questions ... ask. PMs are fine.

Well folks I got to thinking about this because yesterday in fact I had my eyes re-examined. Yes, they did do all those other tests with the little machines you rest your head on but they are to measure pressure and test for macular degeneration and other stuff.. none of that actually has anything to do with the actual prescription itself, only the eye chart with a Q and A session does that.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Well, yeah.

a reply to: calstorm

Try holding control and zooming in or out with your mouse wheel. This should resize the content in your browser. Hope that helps :-)

The eyeball is just that a ball with a small hole that controls how much light goes in. This ball should be a perfect sphere in order for the focal point to be in or on the nerves made of cones and rods which process the focused light in the back of the eye ball. In essence, the lenses corrects the focal point so that the light hits the cones and rods in the sweet spot. So the answer your function would produce would be the thickness of your lenses.

With today' technology this is totally possible. However, the existing method is effective as the thickness of glasses needed do not vary that much because patients deformed eyes are not that deformed. Please excuse me, I don't wish to rain on your parade.