What’s a phoropter?
If you’ve ever had an eye exam, chances are good that you’ve been asked to look through a device where the optometrist flips through different lenses, asks you to look at an eye chart and maybe asks you which lens you prefer, “one or two.” That device is called a phoropter.
A phoropter is a device used to assess refractive error – conditions that make your vision blurry, whether because you’re nearsighted (myopic), farsighted (hyperopic) or have astigmatism. Astigmatism means some part of your cornea or lens isn’t perfectly round or dome-shaped, making your vision (or part of it) blurry or distorted at any distance. All these forms of refractive error can generally be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.
A phoropter is essentially a box full of lenses that makes it easy to try different corrective lenses on a patient. The many dials and buttons allow the optometrist to adjust the power of the lenses.
