Eye Health Exams & Procedures Signs of Higher-Order Aberrations By Troy Bedinghaus, OD Troy Bedinghaus, OD LinkedIn Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. Learn about our editorial process Updated on December 29, 2021 Medically reviewed by Johnstone M. Kim, MD Medically reviewed by Johnstone M. Kim, MD Johnstone M. Kim, MD, is a board-certified ophthalmologist and a practicing physician at Midwest Retina in Dublin, Ohio. Learn about our Medical Expert Board Fact checked by Nick Blackmer Fact checked by Nick Blackmer LinkedIn Nick Blackmer is a librarian, fact-checker, and researcher with more than 20 years’ experience in consumer-oriented health and wellness content. Learn about our editorial process Print Aberrations are deviations from normal vision, such as blurring in an image. Most people are familiar with the terms farsightedness (hyperopia), nearsightedness (myopia), and astigmatism. These are considered lower-order aberrations and account for most of the human eye’s vision imperfections. However, another category of refractive errors that has not received as much attention is higher-order aberrations. All eyes have at least some degree of higher-order aberrations. These aberrations are now more recognized because technology has been developed to diagnose them properly. ONOKY / Eric Audras / Getty Images Signs and Symptoms The eye often has several different higher-order aberrations working together. It is sometimes hard to single out individual symptoms that may point to another diagnosis. Some higher-order aberrations can, however, produce patient complaints such as: GlareHalosStarburst effectGhost imagesBlurring Causes The human eye sometimes produces distortions of an image. These distortions are called aberrations. As a ray of light passes through an optical system, it has a wavefront. In a perfect eye, the wavefront is undisturbed and smooth. In an eye with imperfections, the wavefront becomes distorted and has a characteristic three-dimensional shape. Higher-order aberrations may be caused by irregular curvatures in the cornea and lens, trauma, scarring, dry eyes, and very large pupils. Diagnosis Higher-order aberrations are measured most commonly by a device called an aberrometer, which measures the wavefront of the eye and compares it to an eye that has no aberrations. This aberration map is referred to as the eye’s “optical fingerprint” because it is unique and unlike any other person’s optical system. Unlike traditional vision measurements, which require subjective input from the patient, an aberrometer takes only seconds to obtain measurements and requires no patient input. Treatment Wavefront technology has helped to produce accurate measurements and diagnoses of higher-order aberrations. Specially designed glasses, contact lenses, intraocular lens implants, and wavefront-guided laser vision correction can correct higher-order aberrations. 5 Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Rampat R, Malet J, Dumas L, Gatinel D. Wavefront sensing, novel lower degree/higher degree polynomial decomposition and its recent clinical applications: a review. Indian J Ophthalmol. 2020;68(12):2670. doi:10.4103/ijo.IJO_1760_20 Jamerson EC, Elhusseiny AM, ElSheikh RH, Eleiwa TK, El Sayed YM. Role of matrix metalloproteinase 9 in ocular surface disorders. Eye Contact Lens. 2020;46(2):S57-S63. doi:10.1097/ICL.0000000000000668 Koh S. Irregular astigmatism and higher-order aberrations in eyes with dry eye disease. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2018;59(14):DES36. doi:10.1167/iovs.17-23500 Suliman A, Rubin A. A review of higher order aberrations of the human eye. Afr Vis Eye Health. 2019;78(1). doi:10.4102/aveh.v78i1.501 Atas MCD, Landicho LMT, Lobo AD, et al. Development of wavefront sensor using Shack-Hartmann principle. In: 2019 IEEE 11th International Conference on Humanoid, Nanotechnology, Information Technology, Communication and Control, Environment, and Management (HNICEM). Piscataway, New Jersey: IEEE; 2019:1-5. By Troy Bedinghaus, OD Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. See Our Editorial Process Meet Our Medical Expert Board Share Feedback Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! What is your feedback? Other Helpful Report an Error Submit