Find the right eye doctor

It can be hard to find the right eye doctor for the first time or have just moved. Here is some basic information if you are looking for someone to help you with your vision. There are two types of eye doctors, optometrists and ophthalmologists. There are about 35,000 optometrists and 19,000 ophthalmologists practicing the U.S.A.

Optometrists

Optometrists obtain their doctorate of optometry upon completion of 4-year graduate education in optometry. Optometric students generally spend the first two years in learning basic sciences and the last two years in learning to refract patients for corrective wears (glasses and contact lens) and examine ocular diseases. Upon graduation and passing the licensing board examinations, optometrists can practice optometry. Clinical residency opportunities are available to optometrists who wish to obtain to advanced clinical competence in an area. These specialty areas include family practice optometry, pediatric optometry, geriatric optometry, vision therapy and rehabilitation, low-vision rehabilitation, cornea and contact lenses, refractive and ocular surgery, and primary eye care optometry, and ocular disease,

Ophthalmologists

Ophthalmologists are complete physicians, either M.D. (doctor of medicine) or D.O. (doctor of osteopathic medicine), who must have obtained their medical degree, completed one year of internship, and followed by 3 years of residency in ophthalmology. Upon completion of internship year and passing the national medical board examinations, these physicians are fully-licensed physicians. During the 3 years of residency in ophthalmology, the resident physicians learn about the eye's anatomy, to treat all spectrum of eye diseases and to perform surgeries of different subspecialties of ophthalmology. There are about nine to ten subspecialties: pediatric, cornea, refractive, glaucoma, neuro-ophthalmology, ocular oncology, ocular pathology, ocular plastics, uveitis, and vitreo-retinal surgery. Upon completing the residency, these physicians can practice ophthalmology and become board-certified after passing the written and oral specialty board examinations.

As the trend of health care delivery has become more specializing, about 30-40% of ophthalmologists choose to spend additional one to three years in fellowships in the above subspecialties.

Which is the right eye doctor?

As you can see that there are different kinds of eye doctors and subspecialists, the following tips help to guide you which eye doctors you should go to. First and foremost, the ultimate goal of an eye doctor is to preserve and provide the best possible visual potential for their patients. The following tips are a quick guidance for you to choose a specialist for your eye condition. Any ophthalmologist and optometrist will know which specialist to refer you to care for your eye condition.

• When you have a vision or an eye problem, you should check which eye is the culprit by covering one eye at the time and discern which eye gives you visual problem. Some patients delay seeking treatments by thinking visual problem may be due to a cold and that will go away in a few days. These delays can affect the vfinal outcome.
• You can discern if the blurred vision can be corrected with glasses by trying if you can see better or read things at close up or at distance. If this is the case, you can go to an optometrist or a general ophthalmologist.
• If your vision is still blurry at any range of distance, you should see an ophthalmologist. However, if you have some systemic diseases like diabetic mellitus or hypertension, you may choose to see a retina specialist first.
• If you see floaters, flashing lights, and a curtain coming down on your vision, you should seek consultation with a retina specialist.
• If you experience ocular pain and sensitivity to the light, you should seek consultation with an ophthalmologist.
• If you experience persistent double vision, you should cover one eye to see if the double vision would go away or not. If it does, you may seek consultation with an ophthalmologist or neuro-ophthalmologist.
• If you are older than 55 and experience a sudden vision loss, you should seek immediately consultation with an ophthalmologist, a retina specialist or a neuro-ophthalmologist.
• If you experience headache and droopy eyelid, you should seek consultation with a neuro-ophthalmologist or ophthalmologist.
• If your child has crossed-eyes, pediatric ophthalmologists are better choice if they are available in your area.