On the Perfect Vision

So. I'm currently doing my ophthalmology posting where the eyes are concern. One of the basic skills that we must know in this posting was to test the visual acquity where Snellen's chart is used. Patients were asked to stand 6 metres away and were asked to read the letters they saw on the chart. These letters were actually of varying sizes. So naturally, you're supposed to be able to read the biggest, but as the size of these letters get smaller and smaller, you might not be able to read them, because you just couldn't make out what those black dots are. And aids would be used. Or the patients are asked to stand closer to the chart. You know, things like that. You normally do it at the optical shop.

While we were waiting for our tutor the other day, we fooled around with the charts our own.

Standing 6 metres away seemed really far. I've done quite a number of tests for the patients in the clinic, but I could barely remember when was the last time I did a visual acquity check myself.

I've always know that I've got astigmatism, whereby the surface of the cornea isn't smooth. So the rays of light that falls into the eyes were uneven, forming more than one images on the retina. Therefore, I probably would be seeing more than one images which are overlapping each other rather than one sharp object. And I thought I've corrected it with my specs.

I've got mild short-sightedness, but that's less than my concern because, well, I wasn't quite bothered about it.

But then again, even though I've got my specs with me, I don't wear them that often, to the extent that everyone thought I wear contact lens all the time when they saw me wearing my specs, when the fact was, I was too lazy to put the specs on most of the time.

So, that day in the ward, while we were fooling around with the charts, it came to me by surprise what I just found out about my eyes.

Right eye: 6/6 without pinhole, with pinhole: 6/5;
Left eye: 6/9 without pinhole, with pinhole: 6/5.

Perfect. >.<

Meaning, what normal people see at 6 metres away, I could on my right eye. But with the pinholes' aiding, I could see what normal people see at 5 metres away at 6 metres. Have some short-sightedness on my left eye though, but it was corrected with pinholes.

Still, it's just a brief rough exam. :P