World Optometry Day 2023: What is an optometrist?
What is an optometrist?
Today is World Optometry Day, and as an organisation which employs and relies on the expertise of optometrists, we are proud to celebrate them today! Optometrists are a key part of the patient journey at Optimax, from checking your prescription at your consultation and recommending you for surgery, right through to assessing your post-surgery vision and discharging you from our care. Your Optimax optometrist will also examine your healing progress at a number of aftercare appointments to check for any signs of infection. This ensures that your eyes are healthy after your surgery.
People sometimes confuse optometrists with ophthalmologists, but there’s a difference between the two and it’s an important one.
Optometrists can:
- Examine eyes to detect vision problems or issues with eye health
- Make health assessments
- Offer clinical advice
- Prescribe glasses or contact lenses
- Refer patients for treatment
Ophthalmologists are medical specialists and can perform operations on eyes. They usually work in eye hospitals or eye clinics, such as Optimax. This means that the surgeons who perform laser eye surgery and lens treatments for our patients are ophthalmologists, while the professionals you see for your eye checks in the clinic before and after surgery are optometrists.
While we’re on the topic of eye experts, we should also address opticians, which are the group of eye care professionals that people are most familiar with before visiting an eye surgery company like us. Opticians are often located in shops on the high street selling glasses and contact lenses, and they can also perform eye tests to check your eye health and vision. After your eye surgery at Optimax, you will still need to visit your optician for regular check-ups to assess your vision and to ensure that your eyes are still in good health. This is a key part of the terms for our Lifetime Aftercare Guarantee and its validity.
Your journey to clear, natural vision with Optimax
If World Optometry Day has got you considering your vision, and you would now like to correct your sight, we’re here to help. Getting started with Optimax has never been quite so simple.
Book your free consultation
You can do this online or by giving us a call on 0800 093 1110. We’ll take a few details from you including your age and prescription, which gives us an idea of which treatments you may be suitable for, and book you in for an appointment at your local Optimax clinic. We have 19 locations around the UK, so there is sure to be one conveniently placed for you.
Meet the optometrist at your consultation
At your consultation, you’ll be seen by a patient advisor who will perform a range of scans to check your eye health. You will then visit the optometrist who will review these scans and perform some further examinations to check your prescription and your visual acuity. Based on this, the optometrist will talk you through the vision correction surgeries available at Optimax and recommend a treatment to you.
The optometrist will give you a range of information including:
- How the surgery works
- What the recovery time is like
- A breakdown of the risks and benefits
- A realistic idea of predicted outcomes
Booking your surgery
At Optimax, our patient advisors and optometrists pride themselves on a patient-centred, non-sales-focused approach. We want you to make a decision that is in your best interests, and we know that you can only do this after a thorough examination and detailed appointment with your optometrist. Our teams will never pressure you to book your treatment at your consultation, and you are always welcome to go home and carry out some more research in your own time, before committing to surgery.
Take the next step to clear vision
If you’re interested in meeting one of our optometrists to discuss vision correction options at Optimax, you can book your free consultation in three easy ways:
- Via our website
- By calling 0800 093 1110
- By emailing enquiry@optimax.co.uk
We look forward to seeing you in a clinic near you soon.
Happy World Optometry Day!
