https://youtu.be/U5Pdh6HtORM

1. Numb your patient’s eye

• Pull down on the lower eyelid.
• Place 1-2 drops of proparacaine or tetracaine on the inner mucosal surface.

2. Sit your patient up with a headrest

• The headrest serves as a backstop for when they try to move their head away from you.

3. Put on the tonopen cover

• Squeeze the white paper end.

• Push the blue plastic cover onto the metal tip of the tonopen.

• Roll the blue plastic cover all the way down.

  

4. Turn on the tonopen

• Press the blue button on the top of the pen.

• After a few seconds, it will beep and the light will turn green. This means it’s ready to measure.

  

5. Hold the pen like a pencil

• You do NOT have to hold it perfectly horizontal.
• You can take measurements while a patient is supine.

6. Take a measurement

• Have your patient fix their gaze on something in the distance.

• Tap gently against the patient’s cornea, right over the pupil.

  • The pen will beep when you take a good measurement.

• Keep tapping in rapid succession until you hear one long beep, which means its done measuring. It usually takes 6-10 readings.