Patients with myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), or presbyopia, can wear contact lenses or eyeglasses instead of having refractive surgery to improve their refractive errors.

Retinoscopy: (ret-i-nos-ko-pee) (n) light beam test used to detect refractive errors.

refractive errors

The medical term for this condition is "refractive error." Refractive errors occur when the shape of the eye prevents light from focusing directly on the retina, leading to blurred vision. Some common types of refractive errors include myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), and astigmatism.

There is no consistent, direct one-to-one correlation between refractive error (like a prescription of -4.75 for example) and the level of visual acuity. People with the same refractive error may perform differently on vision testing just as people with the same visual acuity may have different refractive errors.