The 2012 Charles Prentice medal lecture: wavefront measurement of refractive state.

Modern efforts to define and measure the refractive state of aberrated eyes have led to new insights about the nature of refractive error, the quality of the retinal image, the interplay of the crystalline lens, and the eye's pupil during accommodation. Our change in mind-set engendered by wavefront concepts has the power to alter our way of thinking about many clinical issues that are fundamentally optical in nature, such as dynamic changes in optical quality of eyes caused by tear film deterioration, outcome assessment of refractive therapies, and myopia progression. The aim of this lecture is to help make advances in these areas of optometric science broadly accessible to educators, clinicians, and patients by explaining in simple terms the underlying optical concepts of wavefront aberrometry.