An optometrist takes four years of school after the bachelor's degree. They can do minor surgical procedures. An ophthalmologist goes through four years of medical school and then they specialize in eyes.
Optometrist checks the health of the eyes for eye disease, injury, infection. Then they measure prescription for glasses. They also fit contact lenses. If the patient have LASIK surgery, then optometrists work with some local ophthalmologists. They do the preoperative care, evaluate them before surgery and then they do post-operative afterwards.
Optometrist treat eye infections, allergies, foreign bodies that get into the eye, whether it's metal or a bug. The surface of the eye is very sticky. So, it doesn't take much to get something stuck in it. The things that are easy to remove, they'll remove. If it needs some digging, They'll refer them to an ophthalmologist.
Some common eye problems optometrist encounters.
Cataract. But it's not a disease. It's an aging process like getting wrinkles. All people get it when they're in their 60s and 70s. The surgery for cataract takes eight to 10 minutes. An ophthalmologist does that. Optometrist would see the patient beforehand to determine that he has cataract and it's bad enough to need surgery. And they would refer him to an ophthalmologist. Then optometrists would deal with the patient afterward.
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Filed under Cataract Surgery, Contact Lens, Eye Treatment, Glaucoma, Lasik Eye Surgery, Refractive Eye Surgery | Tags: eye, Lasik, LASIK Surgery, School | 1 Comment
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October 10th, 2008 at 2:59 am
i just went to see eye doctor; and i had an eye exam,,and its turn out that i have a glaucoma on my right eye,He is OD,,doctor,,(optometry),,my concern is that can i see a opthamologist instead??to see for the second opinion??
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
O boy… you really need to stay away from machine translation!! The Portuguese translation is a howler. I had no idea that optometrists also did some glazing work on the side! As for the bodies of foreigners which can infest eyes…ouch!
Hire a translator..machines ar not up to it yet. It only makes you look stupid and incompetent