This test has been created for people who can naturally discern data from both eyes separately as well as a pair. If you can look at a spot (any point in the room you might be sitting in now, where two or three lines converge,) intentionally more with your right eye and then with you left, then you have have this capacity. If you can’t do this and sense that your vision is working as one unit, then you don’t have this capacity. You are more likely to have a straight-forward strabismus and this could be detected by the optician using the maddox rod test for just one eye. This is standard practice.
My experience is that it is those who have the capacity to use their eyes more independently who are more likely to be disturbed by their phorias. Assessment and solutions are more complex than when treating straight-forward strabismus. Therefore I created this test where we test both eyes.
Light Gaze Test
You need: –
- A maddox rod lens (which can be bought inexpensively on the internet) and is a small lens made up of a series of parallel cylindrical rods. Sometimes it is white and sometimes it is red. They can be found in sets of lenses or can be purchased individually.
- A small light (size of lit area no more than 15 mm.) I prefer to use a little camping light and cover most of it with some carbon mat, leaving a hole just the right size. This is the right level of brightness for me and unlike a pen light I don’t have to hold it.
- A dark room. Just closing the curtains and turning off any artificial lights and screens is fine.
The Test
- Make yourself a chart to record your data for your right and left eye in both the horizontal and vertical plane.
- Turn on your light and place on a hard surface about a metre away from you.
Testing Your Right Eye
- Place your maddox rod in front of your left eye with the cylinders going in a horizontal direction. This will cause you to see a vertical line, as the rods distort the light into a line.
- Look at the vertical line and you should see the light almost superimposed onto the line half way down. You will see them together if you have good binocular vision or if you are able to turn it on briefly.
- Now relax your right eye and let it wander to where it wants to naturally go. You may see the light now move to being on one side of the line. Write down on your chart ‘Right Eye Horizontal’ ‘Light Left’ or ‘Light Right’.
- Turn you maddox rod 90 degrees so now the rods will be going in a vertical direction. This will cause you to see a horizontal line.
- Look at the horizontal line and you should see the light almost superimposed onto the line half way along. You will see them together if you have good binocular vision or if your able to turn it on briefly.
- Now relax your right eye and let it wander to where it wants to naturally go. You may see the light now move to being above or below the line. Write down on your chart ‘Right Eye Vertical’ ‘ Light Above’ or ‘Light Below’.
- Record your data.
Testing Your Left Eye
- Place your maddox rod in front of your right eye with the cylinders going in a horizontal direction. This will cause you to see a vertical line, as the rods distort the light into a line.
- Look at the vertical line and you should see the light almost superimposed onto the line half way down. You will see them together if you have good binocular vision or if your are able to turn it on briefly.
- Now relax your left eye and let it wander to where it wants to naturally go. You may see the light now move to being on one side of the line. Write down on your chart ‘Left Eye Horizontal’ ‘ Light Left’ or ‘Light Right’.
- Turn you maddox rod 90 degrees so now the rods will be going in a vertical direction. This will cause you to see a horizontal line.
- Look at the horizontal line and and you should see the light almost superimposed onto the line half way along. You will see them together if you have good binocular vision or if your are able to turn it on briefly.
- Now relax your left eye and let it wander to where it wants to naturally go. You may see the light now move to being above or below the line. Write down on your chart ‘Left Eye Vertical’ ‘Light Above’ or ‘Light Below’.
- Record you data.
Interpreting Your Results
The test results relate to the eye that does not have the maddox rod placed in front of it. Please note that results for the left eye are reversed because the left eye is a mirror image of the right eye. You do not need to reverse your results. I have already done that for you below.
RIGHT EYE
- Horizontal + Light Right = Exo = Prism IN
- Horizontal + Light Left = Eso = Prism OUT
- Vertical + Light Above = Hyper = Prism DOWN
- Vertical + Light Below = Hypo = Prism UP
LEFT EYE
- Horizontal + Light Right = Eso = Prism OUT
- Horizontal + Light Left = Exo = Prism IN
- Vertical + Light Above = Hyper = Prism DOWN
- Vertical + Light Below = Hypo = Prism UP
Your Next Step
Try out some prisms. You can try prism in just one direction but you may need to try prisms in two directions. Please read more here.
Phoria Sensitivity 