Eye care professional

Eye Care Professional

An Eye Care Professional (pronunciation: /aɪ kɛər prəˈfɛʃənəl/) is a healthcare worker who provides services related to the eyes or vision. These professionals can be classified into different types, including Optometrists, Ophthalmologists, and Opticians.

Etymology

The term "Eye Care Professional" is derived from the English words "eye" (the organ of sight), "care" (the process of protecting someone or something), and "professional" (a person engaged or qualified in a profession).

Types of Eye Care Professionals

• Optometrist - An optometrist is a healthcare professional who is licensed to provide primary eye care services. These services include comprehensive eye health and vision examinations, diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases and vision disorders, the prescribing of glasses and contact lenses, as well as the provision of vision therapy and low vision rehabilitation.

• Ophthalmologist - An ophthalmologist is a medical or osteopathic doctor who specializes in eye and vision care. Ophthalmologists are trained to perform eye exams, diagnose and treat disease, prescribe medications, and perform eye surgery. They also write prescriptions for eyeglasses and contact lenses.

• Optician - An optician is a technical practitioner who designs, fits, and dispenses corrective lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the necessary correction to a person's eyesight.

Related Terms

• Visual Acuity - A measure of the spatial resolution of the visual processing system.

• Presbyopia - A condition associated with aging in which the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects.

• Myopia - A condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but in front of it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a distant object to be out of focus.

• Hyperopia - A condition of the eye where the light that comes in does not directly focus on the retina but behind it, causing the image that one sees when looking at a close object to be out of focus.

• Astigmatism - A type of refractive error in which the eye does not focus light evenly on the retina.

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