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  1. #1
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    Blue Jumper _+_+_+ Snellen Chart _+_+_+

    Now where i work the snellen chart's best friend is dust nobody uses it and i never bothered asking. In what situations does an Optician use the snellen chart??? How can you overrefract or underrefract using a snellen chart. I don't know anything about the snellen chart except that your suppose to stand 20 feet away to read above the red line which is 20/20, so please bare with me.

    If someone can refer me to a website that shows you how to use a snellen chart that would be great :D

  2. #2
    OptiBoardaholic
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    I would bare with you, but I would get arrested.

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    Serious posters only please, i'm here to learn and there are great people on this site that don't mind helping others considering how basic the question is for them.

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    ATO Member HarryChiling's Avatar
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    The snellen chart s only the target you are using to have the patient focus on. You may want to focus your search on refraction all together, their is a great paper on it at the ABO's website.

    http://abo-ncle.org/pdf/moe.pdf
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    Blue Jumper Snellen chart.............................

    Quote Originally Posted by Spexx View Post
    Now where i work the snellen chart's best friend is dust nobody uses it and i never bothered asking.
    Snellen chart

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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    Traditional Snellen chart. Illustration only, not suitable for vision testing.


    A Snellen chart is an eye chart used by eye care professionals and others to measure visual acuity. Snellen charts are named after the Dutch ophthalmologist Hermann Snellen who developed the chart in 1862.

    Contents
    1 Description
    Description

    The traditional Snellen chart is printed with eleven lines of block letters. The first line consists of one very large letter, an E. Subsequent rows have increasing numbers of letters that decrease in size. A patient taking the test covers one eye, and reads aloud the letters of each row, beginning at the top. The smallest row that can be read accurately indicates the patient's visual acuity in that eye.
    The symbols on an acuity chart are formally known as "optotypes." In the case of the traditional Snellen chart, the optotypes have the appearance of block letters, and are intended to be seen and read as letters. They are not, however, letters from any ordinary typographer's font. They have a particular, simple geometry in which:
    • the thickness of the lines equals the thickness of the white spaces between lines and the thickness of the gap in the letter "C"
    • the height and width of the optotype (letter) is five times the thickness of the line.
    Only the nine letters C, D, E, F, L, O, P, T, Z are used in the traditional Snellen chart.
    Wall-mounted Snellen charts are inexpensive and are sometimes used for rough assessment of vision, e.g. in a primary-care physician's office. Whenever acuity must be assessed carefully (as in an eye doctor's examination), or where there is a possibility that the examinee might attempt to deceive the examiner (as in a motor vehicle license office), equipment is used that can present the letters in a variety of randomized patterns.
    According to BS 4274:1968 (British Standards Institution) "Specification for test charts for determining distance visual acuity" the minimum illumination for externally illuminated charts should be 480 lx, however this very important parameter is frequently ignored by physicians, making many test results invalid.

    Snellen fraction

    Visual acuity = Distance at which test is made / distance at which the smallest optotype identified subtends an angle of 5 arcminutes.[citation needed]

    "20/20" (or "6/6") vision

    Snellen defined “standard vision” as the ability to recognize one of his optotypes when it subtended 5 minutes of arc. Thus the optotype can only be recognized if the person viewing it can discriminate a spatial pattern separated by a visual angle of 1 minute of arc.
    In the most familiar acuity test, a Snellen chart is placed at a standard distance, twenty feet in countries where that is the customary unit of measure. At this distance, the symbols on the line representing "normal" acuity subtend an angle of five minutes of arc, and the thickness of the lines and of the spaces between the lines subtends one minute of arc. This line, designated 20/20, is the smallest line that a person with normal acuity can read at a distance of twenty feet.
    Three lines above, the letters have twice the dimensions of those on the 20/20 line. The chart is at a distance of twenty feet, but a person with normal acuity could be expected to read these letters at a distance of forty feet. This line is designated by the ratio 20/40. If this is the smallest line a person can read, the person's acuity is "20/40," meaning, in a very rough kind of way, that this person needs to approach to a distance of twenty feet to read letters that a person with normal acuity could read at forty feet. In an even rougher way, this person could be said to have "half" the normal acuity.
    In countries using the metric system, the standard chart distance is six meters, normal acuity is designated 6/6, and other acuities are expressed as ratios with a numerator of 6.
    Acuity charts are used during many kinds of vision examinations, such as "refracting" the eye to determine the best eyeglass prescription. During such examinations, acuity ratios are never mentioned.
    The biggest letter on an eye chart often represents an acuity of 20/200, the value that is considered "legally blind." Many people with refractive errors have the misconception that they have "bad vision" because they "can't even read the E at the top of the chart without my glasses." But in most situations where acuity ratios are mentioned, they refer to best corrected acuity. Many people with moderate myopia "cannot read the E" without glasses, but have no problem reading the 20/20 line or 20/15 line with glasses. A legally blind person is one who cannot read the E even with the best possible glasses.

    Criticism

    Snellen charts have been the target of some criticism. The fact that the number of letters increases while the size decreases introduces two variables, rather than just one. Several studies indicate that the crowding together of letters makes them inherently more difficult to read. Another issue is that there are fairly large and uneven jumps in acuity level between the rows. To address these concerns, more modern charts have been designed that have the same number of letters on each row, and which use a geometric progression to determine the size of each row of letters.

    See also
    External links
    Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snellen_chart"
    Last edited by Chris Ryser; 03-31-2007 at 03:24 AM.

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    Hi Spexx,

    We place the Snellen Chart on the wall 20ft from the dispensing table. When patients pick up glasses (for distance vision) we have them read down the chart to assure the Rx is comfortable for them.

    In cases where the new Rx greatly differs from the old Rx we set up the new Rx in a trial frame and use the Snellen chart to confirm improved acuity. I realize that the old fashioned Snellen chart is not the greatest measure of acuity but it is a quick, convenient way to measure acuity in our office.

    Most school nurse's in our area use the snellen chart to measure visual acuity during student screenings.

    PS: Any OD's or MD's reading this: it really helps to write BCVA's on your Rx's if you don't expect 20/20. We wind up calling your offices and trying to get that info if any patient has trouble seeing the 20/20 only to find that BCVA is only 20/40:hammer:

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spexx View Post
    .... that your suppose to stand 20 feet..... away
    "You are" or "you're".

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    Sawptician PAkev's Avatar
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    We also use a snellen chart at our dispensing table. However, if you want a headache right out of the gate, you can use a snellen without knowing a persons VA. :hammer:

    It has helped to sell PAL lenses to many folks coming in only intending to buy readers as we trial framed them which then put their distance visual deficit into better perspective.

    The snellen chart is also a well established reference which patients have some familiarity with. We can therefore put it into laymans terms such as explaining to a patient with 20/40 uncorrected vision that they have to drive 30mph in a 60mph speed zone in order to have the same reaction time as all the other folks driving 60mph.

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    ATO Member HarryChiling's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PAKev
    We can therefore put it into laymans terms such as explaining to a patient with 20/40 uncorrected vision that they have to drive 30mph in a 60mph speed zone in order to have the same reaction time as all the other folks driving 60mph.
    That is a great analogy.
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