What is a Doctor of Optometry?
A Doctor of Optometry is more commonly known as an optometrist, and they provide the primary care for your eyes. They provide services such as sight testing, eye corrections, treatment, and management of your vision. They are not medical doctors but do need to have four years of optometry school and three years of college before that.
What Does an Optometrist Want You Know?
An optometrist wants you to know many things about what they do and what you need to know about your eyes. There is one Durango optometrist that wants you to know the following things. These things can help you to have better eye care.
- Do Not Ignore Symptoms
Do not ignore any symptoms with your eyes, even if they do not last long. If you happen to lose vision even for a few moments, get in touch with your eye doctor or go to the emergency room. This could be one indication of a mini-stroke and you need to be seen right away. Other reasons to get in to see your eye doctor immediately are flashing lights, floaters, and double vision.
- 20/20 Vision Does Not Equal Perfect Eyesight
20/20 vision just means that your central vision is perfect, it does not take into account your other types of vision such as night, color, or side vision. It also does not take into account the conditions that can cause blindness such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy.
- Smoking Habit is Important to Know About
You need to let your eye doctor about your smoking habit because it can lead to eye issues later in life. These issues can include cataracts and macular degeneration related to age. If your eye doctor knows that you are smoking, they can be on the lookout for these and other issues. If you quit smoking, your chance of contracting these issues can go to as low as never having smoked. It is always a great idea to quit smoking for your eye health, and your health in general.
- They Dilate Your Eyes
You might want to have another person with you to drive when you go to have a comprehensive eye examination. This is because the eye doctor will dilate your eyes to see if there are issues with your eyes. Dilation causes the pupil of your eye to get bigger and that allows your doctor to see the back of your eyes to see if there are any issues. You can do some research to find out more about why the doctor will dilate your eyes.
- An Optometrist and an Ophthalmologist Are Not the Same
Optometrist is not a medical doctor, and an ophthalmologist is, meaning that they do different things. An optometrist can do basic eye care such as vision screening and other eye tests. They can prescribe glasses and contact lenses and some other medications. An ophthalmologist can do those things and more, including surgery if necessary. You need to choose one that will care about your treatment and find solutions to your problems. Do some research to see which type of eye doctor you need, and which can help you out the way you need.
- Understand Your Insurance
You need to review your insurance and understand what is covered and what is not, preferably before you arrive at your eye appointment. Since most eye insurance is not included in your medical insurance, you might have different deductibles and payments that you must make. Your vision exams, treatments for your eyes, and things like glasses and contacts are usually billed differently.
- Sunglasses May Be Necessary Equipment
You can have all kinds of issues with your eyes if you do not wear sunglasses. The suns UV rays can cause issues such as age-related macular degeneration, eye cancer, and cataracts. You need to find a pair of sunglasses that block out 99% of the UV rays to protect your eyes.
- You Can Get Cataracts Removed Before They Get Bad
You do not have to wait until your cataracts are really bad before you have them removed. Once they begin to affect your vision you may have them removed to improve your vision. Sometimes the doctor can put in lenses that will improve your eyesight at the same time it removes your cataracts. If you want to learn more about the issues that cataracts can cause, you can look here: https://www.aao.org/eye-health/diseases/what-are-cataracts. This information can help you to get your eyes checked sooner if you see a problem.
- Contact Lenses Can Cause Problems
If you do not take care of your contact lenses, you can have issues with your eyes. If you do not clean them correctly, use them for too long, or if they do not fit right, you could have issues such as having your eye scratched or causing new blood vessels to grow causing your vision to be cloudy.
- Your Overall Health is Connected to Your Eye Health
There are many health issues that are connected to the health of your eyes. Health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and mental illness can all cause problems with your vision. Even if you have digestive issues, metabolic disorders, inflammatory disorders, joint issues, muscular issues, and breathing disorders can all lead to vision issues.
Your eye doctor wants you to have the best vision that you can have, so they want you to know how to take care of your eyes. They want you to know the warning signs of bad vision and want you to know to get into the eye doctor as soon as you notice anything different about your eyes or your eyesight.
You need to take care of your physical health so that you do not have issues with the health of your eyes, as well. If you have medical issues, you need to let your eye doctor know about them so that they can look for eye issues and treat them as they come up.