One fine day you wake up and realise that your world has been blurred. Definitely not the psychological blurring but the actual one. Whom would you turn to in such a case? A doctor? Eye doctor? Well! Technically, we call them “optometrists”. To start with, optometrists are eye specialists. In a way, they are the professionals that probe the patients’ the eyes to detect any disease, any anomaly and provide medication accordingly.
Eyes are sensitive and can be affected by many thigs. There are signs that tell you that it’s time to see your optometrist. Here are the signs-
- Eye pain- if there are mild eye pain, you can definitely ignore that. However, if you find frequent intense eye pain, see the optometrist.
- Blurred vision- All of a sudden if you get blurry vision, go to the professional as it can be something severe.
- Eye infection- The signs of eye infection are itchy, swollen, or red eyes. You may also have discharges from eyes when it is infected.
- Double vision– It can happen to one or both eyes. It can happen for many other reasons.
- Difficulty to see at night– If you face difficulty to see at night, your eye sight may have affected.
- Frequent headaches– If you have any frequent headaches, chances are that it is happening because of your eyes. Go and get your eyes checked to your optometrist.
- Dry eyes- itchy or dry eyes can happen from seasonal allergies. Itchy eyes indicate that your eyes have become dry. Therefore, you would need to see the eye doctor. It can happen because of seasonal infections.
- Diabetes- Diabetes has several effects in your body. It can affect out eyes as well. Too much sugar in the human blood vessels usually affects the retinal blood vessels and cause damage to them.
While talking about optometrist, if you think about the person popping up in your mind would be the one that sit at a shop and deals in almost every kind of spectacles. He is an optician. There are differences between optometrist and optician.
Optometrist v/s Optician:
This field of optometry has become pretty prodigious since past few years. On the contrary, the opticians ever since the very inception, are a little stagnate and they owe it all to the very paltry scope of this field. Coming down to the dissimilitude between the two, here’s how it goes:
- The fore basic variance lies in the very eligibility of mastering the field. While optometrist require professional level strenuous training which comprises structured indoctrination. Whereas, the opticians are mere white collared workers. Their prime requisites are superficial training alongside the basic knowledge of the spectacle power and the like.
- The next distinction can be in the functions effectuated by the two of them. The optometrist is like an eye doctor, as also called eye optician earlier. They perform eye examinations and also fit contact lenses as apposite to the patients’ condition. They may and may not manufacture the spectacles by themselves. They are adept at discerning the eye diseases and moreover, they are competent enough to cure it proffer treatment towards it.
On the other hand, the opticians are mere dealers in spectacles and contact lens. They are competent to discern the vision singularities and assign it with the suitable power. However, they do not effectuate the examination of the eyes or effect treatments towards it.
- Now this one is the most obvious. The optometrists levy more for a single sitting as compared to a single visit to the optician. The amount may be further proliferating in case any eye or vision fault has been detected, in the light of an
Eyes are precious. Therefore, you should never take any risk with the eyes. Always visit your optometrist or the eye specialist on a regular basis. 2-3 times of routine check-up a year is a good number. It can also prevent your eyes from having any major issues as the optometrist will detect it early.