Optometry

An optometrist is a primary health care provider that specializes in eye care and visual health. They help patients and their families take the first step toward healthier eyes. If a disease or other conditions are detected, doctors of optometry can help navigate patients to the right prevention plans or the next steps in official diagnosis and treatment. They examine, diagnose, treat and manage diseases, injuries, and disorders of the visual system, the eye, and associated structures and their related systemic conditions. The importance of comprehensive eye exams with an eye doctor is about more than blurry vision. Vision changes over time and more than 16 million Americans struggle with undiagnosed or untreated vision impairments, which a comprehensive eye exam could have detected. Each day, America’s primary eye health care providers examine asymptomatic patients who come in for comprehensive eye examinations, only to then diagnose them with serious eye and health issues ranging from glaucoma and macular degeneration to STDs, brain tumors and other conditions.