Optometry: Definition, Treatments Used, Origins and Optometry as a Professional Career

It is the graduation or measurement of the visual perception index and the defects of the sight and calculation of the lenses to correct said defects.

Optometry physicians are independent primary health care providers who specialize in diagnosing and treating diseases and disorders of the visual system, eye, and associated structures, as well as diagnosing systemic conditions related to this critical visual organ.

Among the types of treatment that optometrists use are:

  • Eyeglasses.
  • Contact lenses.
  • Vision therapy
  • Aids for low vision.
  • Pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of eye diseases.

The Doctor of Optometry also evaluates the general health conditions during an exam. Diabetes, high blood pressure, and arteriosclerosis are often detected during an eye exam.

Diagnosing systemic manifestations of ocular disease is necessary to preserve and improve the patient’s quality of life. When appropriate, the optometrist sends patients to other health professionals and often works with them to jointly manage the patient’s condition.

The vision constantly changes throughout a person’s life, and, as it does, the needs for vision care also change. Optometry physicians provide optometric examinations and treatments to prevent a patient’s vision problem from becoming a severe vision impairment.

Origins of optometry

The care and attention to the sight is not a phenomenon of recent date. For the concern for the health of the eye has its roots in characters of the past as dissimilar as Leonardo Da Vinci, Kepler, and Galileo; the latter would be one of the pioneers in talking more appropriately about the health of the eyes and, as if that were not enough, he spoke about the lenses.

That is to say, there was a past tense in which man wondered about what he called optics and its relation to light and vision.

 

Even the Roman philosopher Seneca came to create a kind of lens that consisted of a glass filled with water, and when looking through it, the philosopher said he read better.

Likewise, sailors such as Marco Polo did not skimp on details when he said he had seen in Asian regions, particularly in what is now China, characters who had been wearing glasses with them for years.

What is true is that the health of human vision has been a subject that goes back thousands of years and that with the help of modern technological advances had made it possible that before it was pure empiricism is today a practical science which it has been given the name of optometry.

Econometrics as a professional career

Those who choose optometry enjoy challenging and rewarding careers. An optometrist can help a child whose school work is hampered by visual problems, a worker whose visual problem causes occupational safety risks, or an elderly patient who may have unnecessarily waived reading.

Optometrists are the primary providers of eye care in the United States, with approximately 40,000 optometrists practicing in more than 6,000 communities. Optometrists are the only primary eye care providers in many of these communities.

The type of practice environment that the optometrist can enter is also expanding. While private individual practice remains the predominant mode, more optometrists enter into partnerships or group practices with other optometrists or health care providers.

Health maintenance organizations, armed forces, Veterans Administration medical centers, and hospitals offer optometrists unique opportunities to be integral to the healthcare service delivery team.

Optometry is a rewarding career that allows you to provide essential health care services to your patients while making important personal and personal contact simultaneously.

Optometry will allow you to succeed in establishing relationships with patients, whether in small or large cities. Your experience will impact the lives of your patients as you provide eye and visual health for the 21st century.