In FCC testing, what is the initial adjustment applied to the patient’s prescription?

• A. Add Plus
• B. Add Minus
• C. Add Neutral
• D. Add Double Plus

Answer: (A)

Fogging with plus power to relax accommodation is the starting move in subjective refraction. By adding a small plus lens, vision is slightly blurred, which reduces the eye’s accommodative effort and prevents latent hyperopia or accommodation from biasing the refraction. This creates a stable, neutral starting point from which you can refine the prescription. Starting with minus would drive the eye to accommodate, potentially masking hyperopia or leading to an incorrect over-minus result. Neutral (no added power) wouldn’t control accommodation at all, and doubling the plus is unnecessarily excessive for an initial step.