State of optometry, Don't be discouraged

[blazenmadison]

I recently got a PM about the bleak outlook for optometrists, and how I am joining a perhaps a profession that is spiraling down. (Lasik robbing our patients, opticians refracting, low salaries, commerical slave, etc.) (YIKES!)

Well, luckily I did some homework on my future career and I do know what I am getting into. Everyone needs to be warned that there are some folks on this board that believe you should abandon your OD ambitions. Take everything you read with a grain of salt.

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[Envision]

This is a nice post, optimistic and positive. however, to strengthen your point, could you provide reasons for why people should take all those problems you mentioned (lasik, optician refracting) like a grain of salt. maybe share what you found in your research?

 

[prettygreeneyes]

This is a nice post, optimistic and positive. however, to strengthen your point, could you provide reasons for why people should take all those problems you mentioned (lasik, optician refracting) like a grain of salt. maybe share what you found in your research?

I'll take a stab at this...

Why optometrists shouldn't be overly concerned about LASIK - First, not everyone with some sort of refractive error can have LASIK. Many people will not even consider LASIK; they like glasses or contacts just fine. Next, as part of the "warranty" package that comes with LASIK... you must have a dialated eye exam once a year... forever. I doubt that all of these eye exams would be performed by OMD's... they would rather be doing LASIK! Finally, optometrists are very involved in pre and post op care, and get paid well for doing so (at least the private doc I worked for did!).

Opticians refracting - I don't really know enough about this to make an informed argument. Optometrists do more than just refracting...

 

[KHE]

I recently got a PM about the bleak outlook for optometrists, and how I am joining a perhaps a profession that is spiraling down. (Lasik robbing our patients, opticians refracting, low salaries, commerical slave, etc.) (YIKES!)

Well, luckily I did some homework on my future career and I do know what I am getting into. Everyone needs to be warned that there are some folks on this board that believe you should abandon your OD ambitions. Take everything you read with a grain of salt.

You should not abaondon your OD ambitions. You should just proceed with caution.

LASIK does not/will not hurt optometry. If anything, it helps because it brings people into the offices asking about it.

Opticians refracting would be a problem for ODs working commercially. For ODs who work in private practices where they can accept insurances, it will have much less effect initially. In the long run, it would hurt them too because eventually insurance plans will realize that they can send their patients to opticians for a fraction of the cost of what an OD costs.

Commercial practice will continue to grow and thrive and will eventually swallow almost all of optometry unless optometry divorces itself from material sales as the primary revenue generator in its private practices.

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

You may have a point about LASIK taking away marginal profits from optometrist, but as someone stated earlier optometrists are now partnering with ophthalmologists' to provide pre- and post-operative care. On another note, with LASIK surgery it is still only a temporary correction to a patients vision, in other words, if you are correcting for distance vision you will eventually need glasses to correct near vision and vice-versa. So there really is no way of escaping glasses per se. How I know this? well I currently work for an ophthalmologist and we just hired an optometrist (we get to charge the same as an ophthalmologist if we work together!) ...so picking up some helpful tips along the way.

-Future Optometrist