Retinoscopy can provide an approximation of refractive error and this is useful in cases where the patient finds it difficult to communicate, new patients who have not brought their glasses to the consultation and those who have not had previous refractive correction. The power of the trial lenses determined through retinoscopy provides a useful starting point for subjective refraction.
There are some potential adverse reactions, side effects and legal issues in the use of cycloplegic drugs. Alternatives to using drugs have been suggested. One such method is near fixation retinoscopy-often referred to as the Mohindra technique. This relies on the fact that young children are lik...
Because of errors arising from working off the visual axis and spherical aberration during retinoscopy, before a prescription can be issued the results obtained need to be refined during subjective refraction. The Jackson cross-cylinder is used to refine the correction for astigmatism.
Following retinoscopy and subjective refraction, binocular balancing is used to ensure that the accommodation is balanced in each eye. It corrects any extra hyperopia that may become manifest when the patient becomes binocular. Binocular balancing ensures that accommodation is balanced between th...