An aberrometer measures aberrations in the eye by measuring the wavefront as it passes through. The wavefront map produced is unique to each patient and can diagnose and treat higher and lower order aberrations, including those that cause double vision or blurred vision. The Z-View® aberrometer produces higher resolution images than other aberrometers and is used to produce iZon® wavefront-guided lenses.
Many problems can arise when the eyes form a picture of what they see. Ideally, the light received by the eye will be properly focused on the retina. In reality, light is sometimes distorted by imperfections in the cornea and lens. These distortions are called aberrations, and an aberrometer is used to measure them.
Light can be thought of as a set of lines or rays. Drawing a line connecting the tip of each ray produces a wavefront. A wavefront can be thought of as an image that represents how perfect the light is.
An aberrometer works by measuring the wavefront as it passes through the eye. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as wavefront technology or wavefront aberrometer. In an aberration-free eye, the wavefront will be flat, like a piece of paper. In an eye with imperfections, it will be bent and distorted.
To perform aberrometry, the patient will look into the aberrometer and focus on a bright spot. The aberrometer will send a low-level laser beam into your eye and measure the reflection, or wavefront. The measurement can be taken when light hits the retina, when it reflects off the retina and exits the eye, or both.
While the results take only seconds to acquire, it takes several minutes to produce the wavefront map, an image of the wavefront. The wavefront map is unique to each patient. Some liken it to a fingerprint, because no two patients will share the same wavefront map.
Aberrations can be of a lower order or a higher order. Low-order aberrations are conditions well known to most people: astigmatism, nearsightedness, and farsightedness, to name a few. The vast majority of people with low vision will have lower order aberrations.
Higher-order aberrations are less well known and cause problems such as double vision or blurred vision. Before aberrometry, these were more difficult to treat and often went undiagnosed. With the wavefront map produced by an aberrometer, higher and lower order aberrations can be easily diagnosed and treated. Also, by using a wavefront map in refractive surgeries such as LASIK, some higher order aberrations can be permanently corrected.
Most aberrometers are based on technology invented by Johannes Hartmann and modified by Roland Shack. A high-end aberrometer, not based on Hartmann-Shack technology, was designed by Ophthonix Corporation. Called the Z-View® aberrometer, it can produce wavefront images 10 times the resolution of Hartman-Shack-based aberrometers in about a minute. Ophthonix uses the higher resolution images to produce its iZon® wavefront-guided lenses, which the company says outperform traditional eyewear.
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