Your eyes enable you to perform various activities as you conduct your daily business. Their sensitivity, evidenced by the presence of eyelids, makes them prone to multiple issues despite the cautions taken to prevent them. Maintaining your quality of life with eye problems can be challenging, as any hindrance to seeing can be pretty uncomfortable. This can be solved through eye physicians such as optometrists. Swati Kumar OD, FAAO is a renowned optometrist with vast expertise and experience in the field. What he does is further highlighted below.
Who Is an Optometrist?
This is a licensed medical professional to identify and offer treatment solutions to ailments and conditions affecting your visual system or eyes. They can do all the duties of an ophthalmologist except for surgery. These healthcare providers can be located in clinics, hospitals, research facilities, teaching institutions, and other eye facilities. However, their most important contributions are to clinics, hospitals, and public health facilities.
Roles of Optometrists
These healthcare providers are duty-bound to offer treatment plans for patients with eye problems in a clinical setting. Consultation first involves general eye tests as the physician takes down your entire medical history, especially those involving issues of the eyes. The eyes are then examined for refractive errors, while a visual acuity test evaluates eyesight.
If proper vision cannot be ascertained, you are prescribed contact lenses or spectacles that have the measured refractive status of the eyes. Apart from these visual tests, optometrists can do these duties:
· Checking out eye diseases
This is done using an ophthalmoscope that identifies your eye’s issues like macular degeneration and glaucoma. Other ailments associated with eye functions like hypertension or diabetes can also be detected. Any irregularities of this test warrant more specialized tests.
· Prescribing medications
Pharmaceutical medications like antihistamines, antibiotics, or analgesics can be prescribed to deal with glaucoma or other ocular diseases.
· Independent prescribing
Optometrists can be certified by relevant boards to be able to prescribe most licensed drugs apart from injectables.
· Contact lens professionals
Optometrists have training and expertise to provide contact lenses for issues like abnormally-shaped corneas. Other contact lenses like varifocal and toric lenses can also be handed out.
In hospitals, optometrists do multiple roles, including those provided in a clinic. They can do outpatient services for some patients like in the following situations:
· Primary eye care for outpatients
These physicians can prescribe corrective lenses, check for vision sharpness, and can use equipment necessary for eye observation.
· Low vision care
They can give low vision care drugs for recovery while helping patients with irreversible eyesight loss. They also inform patients about particular visual exercises that enhance their vision.
· Binocular vision care
Optometrists can offer customized vision therapy for people with binocular issues, especially those involving athletes or students in this area.
Your eyes enable you to perform most of your activities with ease. This means that any issues of the eyes unattended can make you unable to go to work or school or do most things you used to do. Optometrists provide necessary solutions, and any inquiries for them can be addressed on our website or by calling our San Antonio, TX offices.
