About OptometryStudents.com
OptometryStudents.com was founded by senior editor, Matthew Geller, a SUNY 2013 optometry student. Matt and his dedicated team at OptometryStudents.com have a strong passion to deliver valuable information about the world of optometry to optometry students of all ages. OptometryStudents.com is a second home for any individual who desires to become a doctor of optometry, providing the information, interviews, resources, news, pictures, videos, and professional advice that will give optometry students the edge they need to become great doctors. The website is a long term project and has big plans to improve the current state of optometry by making valuable information available to all optometry students.
Mission Statement
To expand the minds of pre-optometrists and optometry students resulting in an increase of knowledge and a thorough understanding of eye care and all that comes with the career of optometry.
The Team
This website has several authors who are optometry students but will often feature posts from various professional individuals involved in the world of eye care. By providing a plethora of information about the field, students who are undecided about their future can log on to the website and learn everything about pre-optometry, graduate optometry college, becoming an optometrist and the transition between each level.
OptometryStudents.com is here to give you the answer to the question “What is Optometry all about?” The thing is, we rather give you the big picture instead of summing up all of its greatness into one sentence. Yet we are also here to tell you that you should go get the answer first hand from an optometry doctor because they will tell you the story with the emotion and flavor that will either spark the fire in your eyes or make you realize that the career is not for you.
About The Career Of Optometry
The career of optometry is very fulfilling. From the day a student decides they have a passion for bringing people healthy vision until the day of retirement, the majority of optometrists keep a wide smile on there face every day. Ask any optometrist who loves their job, “what is optometry all about?” – they will most likely smile and not know where to begin their explanation. If you stuck around for the full description of the career you would most definitely hear about- what optometrists do, where they work, what specialties they focus on, a day in their life, who they work closely with, their salary, what they learned in school, managed care, how the profession has evolved, how optometry is a legislated profession and the amount of opportunity that lies ahead.
What Do Optometrists Do?
Optometry doctors are the front line of eye care, typically first to see a patient having problems with their eyes, vision or with their visual system as a whole. Focusing on the structure, function and disorder of the eye O.D’s also perform routine or yearly examinations, just as your physician performs a yearly physical. As long as the patient’s eye problem is not extremely severe, optometrists will often be seeing patients with dry eye, blurred vision, allergies, sudden vision changes, floaters, glaucoma, macular degeneration, cornea abrasions, foreign body removal, and of course they will perform the BEST refractions so you can walk away with perfect prescription eyeglass lenses. Optometrists also do the pre and postoperative care for LASIK and other eye conditions while it is the ophthalmologist who performs the actual surgeries and treats cases that require a medical doctors license.
Optometry is unique in that doctors may choose a number of specialty fields to enter once they get their doctor of optometry degree. The typical specialty fields that optometrists enter are general practice, low vision, pediatrics, geriatrics, sports vision, contact lenses, vision therapy and ocular disease.
