By Emma 
Getting regular eye checkup is paramount, it ensures that you get to know about the eye issue in advance, and are able to rectify the same before the problem aggravates. However, you need a good eye specialist for this. When it comes to searching for the eye doctors, you’ll hear multiple terms like ‘’optometrists’’ ‘’ophthalmologists’’ and ‘’opticians.’’ These all are different eye specialists who have specializations in certain areas.
An optometrist, also known as the optometric physician is an eye doctor who will evaluate the eye problems and treat your eyes. An ophthalmologist is also a physician who deals with medical surgeries and complicated issues. Finally, opticians are medical professionals who will help you to select the best vision-correcting devices, glass contact lenses, and eyeglasses.
Today, we’ll discuss some significant differences between optometric physicians, opticians, and ophthalmologists.
Table of Contents
Who Are Optometric Physicians And What Services They Provide?
An Optometrist is an eye care doctor specialized in treating basic eye problems and routine eye care. You can seek assistance from experienced optometric physicians for yearly eye examination and getting prescription for contact lenses.
Ophthalmologists and optometric physicians are significantly different because optometrists cannot cure complicated eye diseases and not certified for doing surgeries. Nevertheless, an optometric physician can suggest whether you should knock on the doors of ophthalmologists for your eye diseases.
What services do the optometrist provide you? These physicians can suggest and prescribe some post-surgical medications. They can even do minor surgeries and treat your eye conditions. You can knock on the doors of these physicians for routine or yearly eye examinations. Lastly, they can even help you with getting prescriptions for your contact lenses and eyeglasses.
Let’s Know About Ophthalmologists And What Do They Offer?
You can also visit ophthalmologists for your normal routine checkup and eye diseases like the optometrist. Nevertheless, ophthalmologists can deal with both minor and complicated eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, strabismus surgeries, etc. They also provide special post-surgical medications and regular optometry services.
Are you wondering why ophthalmologists are recommended for eye surgeries instead of optometrists? Ophthalmologists have to undergo special training of nearly 12 years for treating complicated eye diseases and sophisticated surgeries. Mostly, you’ll see ophthalmologists performing surgeries instead of performing the routine eye care checkups.
Unlike optometrist, ophthalmologists are certified for performing both minor and major surgeries. It will be better if you seek professional assistance for eye surgeries instead of consulting with opticians or optometric physicians.
Who Are Opticians And What Services You Can Expect From Them?
Opticians are normal eye care professionals and even customer service representatives who are often seen on the receptions of eye care centres. Opticians are not like ophthalmologists and optometrist. Opticians undergo 1-2 years of training in ophthalmic dispensing and hold an informal medical degree.
However, the freshers can get certifications by working under any optometric physician or ophthalmologists. Opticians are like basic service providers who can suggest contact lenses and treat minor eye diseases.
You can seek professional assistance from opticians for getting genuine eye prescriptions from any optometrists or ophthalmologist. Opticians are certified and experienced in helping patients to find accurate eyeglasses, contact lenses, and even eyeglass frames.
Nevertheless, opticians are not certified for performing minor/major eye surgeries or prescribe medications independently. There are many cases found that opticians sometimes prescribe medications and patients suffer from many diseases.
Hence you must wisely select your eye care provider if you want to land up in problems and make deep holes in your pockets.
Final Thoughts
Optometrist, opticians, and ophthalmologists are different eye care professionals who are dissimilar in education and specialties. When it comes to searching for the best eye care professional, you need to determine what services you expect.
Stay Safe And Always Examine Your Eyes Yearly!
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