this video is gonna be a little bit different today March 23rd is World Optometry day and
what kind of channel would this be Dr. EyeGuy, if I didn't showcase and highlight the profession of
Optometry so in this video I'm going to go over my top three reasons why Optometry is amazing
let's focus in hey howdy everybody this is Dr Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, a channel all about the eyes
and today I have the privilege to talk about a job that I love to do and so this video is going to
be completely biased because I actually do enjoy what I do so start with number one lifestyle and
satisfaction year after year optometrists are consistently ranked among the top professions
in America job satisfaction ranks high overall happiness ranks high and age of retirement is
higher now this might sound like a bad thing but eye doctors tend to love what they do and
they tend not to want to retire and so you'll find older and older doctors just loving what
they do and they don't want to retire because they love it one other thing that I found very
interesting is that Optometry or optometrists have one of the lowest divorce rates in the
nation only ranked under agricultural engineers and media and communication equipment workers
so if you're gonna be an optometrist there's a good chance that you won't get divorced number
two is the job outlook and earning potential of being an optometrist they estimate the job growth
of optometrists will be about 10 percent in the next 10 years that means that we're going to need
more and more eye doctors more optometrists and also the different modalities which areas you can
work as an optometrist is definitely something to look into there's definitely Private Practice
Group practice sub leases or commercial settings there are Hospital settings or co-management
settings where you work with ophthalmologists and co-managing surgeries and you can work in
research or education or be on the Forefront of Cutting Edge technology like developing VR systems
virtual reality systems and contacts so really the options are vast now because you can work in
different modalities the earning potential is vast as well you can earn around the average of 130
000 a year all the way up to 200 to 300 000 a year probably probably more depending on
which area you want to work in I actually love the modality that I work in I work in a group
practice with multiple doctors in multiple offices and it's been very fulfilling to be able to work
together with other doctors how we can treat our patients the best which technology we want
to bring into the office how we want to treat them if I have any questions or ideas I can bounce it
off of them it's been very fulfilling and very rewarding speaking of rewarding that comes to
number three the profession of Optometry is very very rewarding there's the obvious of treating
patients with certain conditions with glasses and contact lenses and that in itself is rewarding on
a day-to-day basis but I do want to say I want to highlight that Optometry does not stop here
in fact I'm willing to say that this is only a small portion of what we can do in fact there is
a lot lot more that we can do that's also very very rewarding one big benefit with Optometry
is that there are a lot of sub-specialties within the field of Optometry one thing that I get a lot
of fulfillment from is fitting people into specialty contact lenses there are patients
out there that have different conditions like keratoconus different shaped corneas very high
nearsightedness or very high astigmatism where normal glasses or normal contacts may not give
them their best vision and they're a specialty contact lenses out there where we can learn to
fit and custom fit these patients where we can actually give them the best Vision that they've
seen in a long time and to be able to accomplish that is very rewarding and very fulfilling another
area is eyesight in children now eye doctors tend to be very protective of the eyesight in children
the developing eyesight in children and that's definitely a sub-specialty a lot of people will
go into vision therapy to help them with their binocular vision now 80 percent of learning is
done through the visual system and so we need to make the visual system the best that it can
be and so a lot of children they might have a lazy eye or one eye that doesn't work as well or
their eyes aren't teeming very well and that's something that we can definitely help improve
on helping not only their Vision but improving eyesight and maybe that one eye that tends to be
the Troublemaker eye improving binocular vision to help with their depth perception and so that ends
up being very fulfilling to be able to help that child helps their learning helps their vision and
is really rewarding another area is Examining The Eye Health now when some comes in for an eye exam
they usually think of an eye exam as getting glasses or contact lenses an eye doctor looks
at an eye exam of course including this but a big portion is checking the Eye Health of that
patient this portion of the eye exam the health exam is very very important to the eye doctors
this is where we can catch any signs of glaucoma macular degeneration cataracts we can see if
diabetes high blood pressure high cholesterols in the eye and that's something very very important
to keep the health of the eyes healthy for the future and so this portion of the eye exam can
be very rewarding as long as we're keeping and staying as that gatekeeper to catch anything
that might be showing up in that patient now like any profession there are definitely challenges
that we're facing legislative challenges we have challenges with glasses and contact lenses how
they're being sold sold online sometimes visual eye exams being done online and so the face of
Optometry is changing but it's also evolving the scope that I'm allowed to practice at an
optometrists are allowed to practice at is very very high and it's advancing more and more each
day with improved education improved training and treatments and patient care this profession
Optometry is just getting better and better now on a personal note I have found in the last few
years more enjoyment out of being an optometrist and part of this is actually from doing YouTube
videos like this I get to research on specific topics learn how I can educate and talk about
that specific topic so people can understand it but also it helps me be a better doctor so these
videos you that have been watching these videos have made me a better doctor better doctor for
my patients and so that's something that I will cherish and again it's making me enjoy Optometry
even more if you have any questions about Optometry leave it in the comments below I love
being an optometrist check out my other videos I'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy, stay focused