Goldmann Tonometer Tips

A Goldmann Tonometer Tip is used in Goldmann Applanation Tonometry, which is the gold standard for measuring someone's intraocular pressure, or eye pressure. During the procedure, the Goldmann Tonometer Tip will come into contact with the front surface of your eye, which is one of the reasons for its superior accuracy.

Function

• Goldmann Applanation Tonometry is one of several methods for measuring the pressure in your eyes. Your eyeball is constantly producing and draining fluid. This fluid is known as aqueous fluid. If there is too much fluid production or not enough drainage, the optic nerve in your eye can sustain damage. This damage results in a disease known as glaucoma. Glaucoma can cause you to lose your peripheral vision first, and if the condition is severe enough, it can cause you to go completely blind.

  Goldmann Applanation Tonometry provides the optometrist or ophthalmologist with a number four your eye pressure. Normal eye pressure is considered to be between six and 21. It is important to remember that if your eye pressure is above 21, you do not necessarily have glaucoma. Only your optometrist or ophthalmologist can make that determination.

Accuracy

• Goldmann Applanation Tonometry is the most accurate because the Goldmann Tonometer Tip actually makes contact with your eye for a few seconds. The portion of the Goldmann Tonometer Tip that touches your eye is only 3.06 millimeters in diameter. The optometrist or ophthalmologist looks through the Goldmann Tonometer Tip at your eye through a slit-lamp microscope. This allows him to fine-tune the measurement with a magnified view of the scale provided by the Goldmann Tonometer Tip.

  This method is more accurate than "the air puff test," known as non-contact tonometry, which many people are familiar with from their eye examinations. The air puff test measures in a split second, and it does not make contact with your eyeball. Two other methods of eye pressure measurement are the Tonopen and the Perkins Tonometer. These two methods do involve contact with the eyeball. However, they are hand-held instruments. They can be subject to subtle changes in the measurement due to positioning of the instrument in free space.