Refraction and muscular imbalance, as simplified through the use of the ski-optometer

by Daniel Woolf

Elimination of Trial-Frame Discomfort

Where the Ski-optometer is correctly fitted to the face, the patient invariably remains in a comfortable position ([Fig. 11]). The instrument is shaped to fit the face like a mask, so that even with a pupillary distance of but 50 m/m (that of a child) there still remains, without pinching, ample room for the widest nose of an adult.

Before making an examination, the correct pupillary distance should always be obtained by drawing an imaginary vertical line downward through the center of each eye from the 90° point on the Ski-optometer axis scale. The pupillary distance will then register in millimeters on the scale of measurements for each eye separately. If the Ski-optometer is correctly adjusted, the patient is securely held in position, the cumbersome trial-frame being entirely eliminated.