The Cover Test

While there are numerous methods for your optometrist to evaluate how well your eyes work together as a team. The Cover Test is the most common and easiest.

During a cover test, your optometrist will have you focus on a small object at distance and will then cover each of your eyes alternately while you stare at the target. As they do this, eye doctors observe how much each eye has to move when uncovered to pick up the fixation target. The test is then repeated as you focus on a near object.

Cover tests will detect very subtle misalignments in the eye. These misalignments can interfere with your eyes working together properly as a team (binocular vision) and cause amblyopia or more commonly called "lazy eye."