Corneal Thickness (Pachymetry)

Purpose:

To measure the thickness of the cornea (the front surface of the eye). When measuring the pressure in the eye, the variation in the corneal thickness from one person to another may cause an error.
A corneal thickness measurement allows us to take more accurate measurements of the pressure inside the eye.

Procedure:

We use an ocular coherence tomography machine to produce a map of the corneal thickness. This machine picks up refelctions from the front and the back of the cornea and measures the distance between. The patient sits with their chin on a chin-rest and the camera is placed about a centimetre in front of the eye. The patient concentrates on a blue target inside the machine. Several images may be taken for the analysis.

How Long Does This Take?

In most cases the measurement will just take a few minutes. The report can be printed directly from the machine.