Plastic Guards

When we as ophthalmologists examine patients, possibly the most important part of the examination is the exam at the slit lamp. The slit lamp is the device that the patient has to put their chin and forehead against so the doctor can get a microscopic view of the eye. However, that puts the doctor and the patient in close contact, which is not necessarily advisable during the time of a pandemic. In order to keep our close proximity from causing increased mutual exposure (as much as possible), we have made plastic guards to hang on the slit lamps. Certainly the most important thing to do is to keep the non-urgent/emergent patients safely at home. However, when those urgent patients are getting examined, though the plastic guards are not perfect, hopefully they will help a little in case either of us sneezes!