2010 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 48-59
Retinoscopy is the most generally satisfactory and accurate method of objectively determining refraction. Its chief value, however, lies in providing a starting point for subjective testing. In the hands of a skilled technician, a very high degree of accuracy can be attained, under favorable circumstances on the order of 0.25D in power and 5° in axis of astigmatism. However, it is a method that cannot be learned from books, but only through long and painstaking practice. Many textbooks give detailed accounts of the underlying theory of retinoscopy. Such explanations, together with the complex diagrams that usually accompany them, are useful as reference material, but are too cumbersome to recall clearly for any length of time. In this paper, the optical principles of retinoscopy is easily and clearly explained by simple geometrical formulae.
