Are you considering becoming an optometrist or maybe you are just wondering what optomitrists do? Optometrists are doctors who extend vision care to people. This can include treating common eye disorders and eye sickness conditions and providing regular vision checkups.
There are many disorders of the eye that optometrists treat. For instance, among Americans 40 years and older, about 2% or approximately 2.2 million people have glaucoma. Approximately 1,600,000 Americans 50 years and older have age related macular degeneration and one in every 12 males is color blind. Eye doctors will use the optometrist training to treat these conditions and more.
Optometrists also perform more than 700,000 LASIK eye procedures each year. During this surgery to correct the vision, a patient will wear protective eyewear for a few days; however, most can return to work the day after the procedure. Again, optometrist training allows these doctors to perform this procedure.
Optometrist training includes a person receiving a bachelors degree in order to be accepted into optometry school. Most people considering optometrist training go into health related fields for their undergraduate degree.
After complete an undergraduate degree, the next step in optometrist training is to complete four years of optometry school. This part of the training is generally a four year program.
The next step in optometrist training after completing optometry schools is entering into a residency program. These residencies generally take about one year to complete. During this residency, optometrists can choose areas of specialization such as pediatric optometry, primary care, or ocular disease.
Part of the optometrist training program also includes taking and passing a licensing exam. This licensing procedure includes taking a national exam, as well as a state or regional licensing exam. These exams usually have both clinical and written parts. These exams are usually taken during the schooling required by optometrist training.
Overall, optometrist training will take approximately nine years of study and residency, including undergraduate degree study.
As you can see, optometrists become well qualified to treat vision problems through a lengthy optometrist training program. So if you ever felt you would like to pursue this course of study, you now know that basics and steps to complete the program to become an optometrist.
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