In all health care decisions, it is always important to choose the right physician. The same thing can also be said about the health of your eyes, it is important that when making a choice of an eye doctor that you choose the best in the field of eye care. The gift of sight is one of life’s most precious gifts. The qualification of the eye doctor you choose goes a long way to portray how much you value the gift of good vision.
Optometrist Vs Ophtalmologist
In making a choice of an eye doctor, you should understand the types of eye physicians that you can choose from. There are optometrists and there are ophthalmologists. A qualified optometrist is one who already earned a degree as a Doctor of Optometry. This means that he or she is qualified to carry out eye examinations in order to determine the health of your eyes and carry out refractive error corrections like prescription of contact lenses and eyeglasses.
In some cases, an optometrist would also offer vision therapy to those with ailing vision. Apart from these, qualified optometrists are also licensed to give prescriptions towards treating various types of eye diseases.
An ophthalmologist on the other hand, is the person to go to if your case requires surgical treatments. In most cases, it would take a unique cooperation between an optometrist and an ophthalmologist for a successful pre-operative and post-operative eye care. Simply put, if you are on the look-out for a primary care eye doctor, an optometrist is your safest bet.
Qualification Is Very Important
A qualified optometrist would be proud to display his or her educational qualifications and as such, if a potential optometrist is shady about his or her qualifications, he or she would not be the right primary care eye doctor for you and your family.
Your optometrist should also be fully licensed to carry out his or her practices. More importantly, such optometrists should be up-to-date when it comes to current or prevailing standards of primary eye care. Whether you are suffering from glaucoma, cataracts, or macular degeneration, a competent and well-trained optometrist would make all the difference as far as treatment and improvement is concerned. In more severe eye diseases or problems, your optometrist would not hesitate to refer you to a specialist or in some cases, co-manage the eye condition with the specialist. Get in touch with an optometrist right away and have your eye conditions detected, diagnosed, and properly managed.
