Currently, the figure of the optician-optometrist plays a fundamental role in an ophthalmology clinic due to their close collaboration with the ophthalmologist.
Ophthalmology is a medical discipline dedicated to eye health that has various areas of specialization. For this reason, the functions of both professionals are clearly differentiated, as well as the academic training that qualifies them to be able to exercise them.
Differences between the ophthalmologist and the optician-optometrist
The ophthalmologist specializes in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases. In general, it can take care of any vision-related problems.
On the other hand, the optometrist is a health professional graduated in Optics and Optometry who performs visual function exams to detect and treat possible visual abnormalities. For example, in the case of refractive errors, the optician-optometrist detects and corrects them by fitting glasses or contact lenses.
However, these vision anomalies do not always respond to an ocular pathology or a refractive error, but may have their origin in problems of visual function. This is the case with problems with the ability to perform eye movements, to focus and defocus or to coordinate both eyes simultaneously. In this field, vision therapy is very useful to improve the performance of visual skills.
The optician-optometrist in an ophthalmology clinic
Knowledge in the field of Optics has various applications in Ophthalmology. For this reason, many ophthalmology clinics are betting on the multidisciplinary nature of their teams, where the presence of opticians-optometrists is becoming more and more frequent. Among the main tasks performed by an optometrist in coordination with the ophthalmologist are:
- Diagnostic tests to assess the patient’s visual quality before going to the ophthalmologist’s consultation.
- Preoperative studies and postoperative tests.
- Calculation of parameters through advanced optical systems necessary in the surgical work of the ophthalmologist.
