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.
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.
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.
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.