Worth Four Dot

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Worth Four Dot

The worth four dot is an essential tool which helps the clinician understand what the patient is able to see from each eye. It is useful to detect if there is double vision or if there is suppression, which means that the brain is ignoring the visual signals from one eye. There are different causes for suppression and the worth four dot helps identify if the brain is paying attention to the signals from both eyes or if one eye is being favored over the other.

How it Works?

The patient wears glasses that have a red filter on the right eye and a green filter on the left eye. The eye doctor holds a special Worth Four Dot flashlight which comes with four circles on it. There is one red circle, two green circles and a white circle. The eye doctor holds this flashlight at various distances and asks the patient, how many dots do you see? What colors are the dots? Based on the patient’s response, the eye doctor gains a greater understanding of different aspects of the person’s visual system and if there is suppression of one eye.

Possible Outcomes

There are different possibilities of what a person who is wearing red and green glasses would see when looking at the Worth Four Dot. These include:

Four dots - this is the ideal result because it means that there is proper fusion between both eyes
Three green dots - this means that the patient is only seeing out of their left eye that has the green filter on it and they are suppressing the right eye
Two red dots - this means that the patient is only seeing out of their right eye which has the red filter on it and the left eye is being suppressed
Five dots - this means that there is double vision because in reality there are only four dots, however this person is seeing more than what is being displayed

This gives the eye doctor a lot of useful information of which eye is being favored and which eye is being ignored through suppression. It also is a helpful indication in how to move forward with the best treatment plan which will train the brain to use both eyes most effectively.

Common Questions

What Is Suppression Of One Eye?

Suppression occurs when the brain chooses to favor one eye over the other by ignoring the visual signals from one eye while only paying attention to the other. The purpose of this is to prevent double or blurry vision. This is the brain’s way of coping when the eyes are not properly working together, however with vision therapy, the brain can properly be trained to operate with both eyes.

What Can Cause Suppression?

There are various causes, such as Double vision, When there is a big gap in the prescription for optical correction between the two eyes, and Lazy eye, also known as amblyopia

Summary

The worth four dot is a very helpful tool which simply uses a special flashlight and red and green filtered glasses in order to detect if one eye is being favored over the other. This is also used to plan the proper treatment to help both of your eyes work together as effectively as possible.