﻿Now, the difference between optometrists
and ophthalmologists is often a confusing one to the average person.
And this is particularly true when we
consider the differences in their roles that exist between countries,
often between states to states within the same country.
In this video, I'm going to explain what the differences are in their
qualifications and their roles they play and also the places where they work.
So keep watching and hopefully by the end of this video will be crystal clear.
And the difference between your optometrist from your ophthalmologist.
Hey, what's happening?
This is Martin's Eye Tips with me, Martin Oguzie, thank you for joining me.
If you are new here,
then I'm a UK based optometrist and this channel is all about helping people to see
better, see more comfortably and being less anxious about their eyes.
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hit that notification bell as well, if you do so, you get reminded
every time I upload a new video. Today I'm going to be talking about the eye care
professionals that are involved in helping you to see better.
So let's get started.
So as optometrist myself in the United Kingdom,
then most of the information in this video is going to be based on a UK perspective.
But it's important to know that there are differences from country to country when
it comes to eye care and optometry in particular.
So where possible,
I'm going to refer to some of those differences. Training and qualifications.
The training of an optometrist in the United Kingdom usually begins
from about the age of 18 after somebody has gone through their
advanced level qualifications typically, and they're expected to achieve the high
grades in three subjects, which are sciences or maths based subjects.
And the kind of entry examination requirements would typically be
A, B or even straight A's in those subjects at that point
then the candidate would then go on to study optometry as a degree,
at one of the universities that offer the program in the United Kingdom.
And typically the optometry degree
in the United Kingdom is a three year Bachelor of Science degree,
or it may also be a four years master's degree as well.
Now, this gives you the qualification of an optometrist,
but in order to practice in the UK, you have to then do a pre registration year.
And this involves working full time
for a year while preparing for professional examinations.
And upon completing all of your professional examinations,
then you are eligible to be registered and you can practice in the UK.
So essentially to practise as an optometrist in the UK,
it's a minimum of four or five years from starting your degree program.
That's important to know that in other countries the training program
for optometrists are often four years or more and often lead to a doctorate
of optometry and a degree, and they then have the title of doctor.
This is not the case in the United Kingdom.
The training here leads to a Bachelor of Science degree or a masters degree,
and we do not have the designated title of doctor here.
And on the face of it, for what I can see, the training is essentially the same
between UK optometrists and our fellow counterparts around the world,
although they have a bit more extension in certain areas that allows them to have
more, for example, rights to prescribe and treat certain conditions.
So that is something that I suspect is likely to change with the expanding roles
that kind of happening in the United Kingdom
more and more now
that it's likely that there will probably be a situation where a doctorate degree is
then on the offer for optometrists here as well.
Now, ophthalmologists, on the other hand,
are required to go to university and get a full medical degree.
And during their advanced level studies
at higher education, you'll be required to achieve a grade
of A, B in your A-levels or most realistically, straight A's,
just because of the very competitive nature of the subject
that upon completing your medical degree and working as a junior doctor,
then you will have to specialize as an ophthalmologist.
So ophthalmology is essentially a specialty of medicine.
So while some people go off and specialize to become a cardiologist,
others may go and specialize in pediatric medicine, then to become
an ophthalmologist requires you to apply for and successfully be accepted onto
a programme of training to become an ophthalmologist.
Having successfully applied and been
accepted onto the programme to train as an ophthalmologist,
the successful candidates will then have to embark upon roughly seven year
training, at least to become a fully fledged ophthalmologist.
So you can think of it almost as having completed your medical degree.
You now have to do an optometry degree as well as a surgical training and as well as
perhaps some extra medical prescribing training for ocular conditions.
And at this point, then they are eligible
to become registered with the governing bodies.
They'll already be registered with the General Medical Council
as doctors, but then they'll need to be registered.
With the Royal College
of Ophthalmologists, as well as the Royal College of Surgeons
as well, now ophthalmologists will obviously have
the qualification of a doctor and the title of doctor,
but this will be an M.D. in recognition of the fact that they are medical doctors.
Now, just a little tip to think about.
For those of you who are thinking about a career in ophthalmology or even
optometry, then the reality is optometry school is a little bit easier to get into.
But that's not necessarily because of the grades.
The great requirements are very, very similar between the two subjects
and in fact, many of the people you'll
find on the optometry degree program already have the grades to do medicine.
But the reality is that medicine is just a very competitive program.
So if you're somebody who finds yourself
missing out on the medicine and you decide to do optometry, but you still have your
heart set on becoming an ophthalmologist, then you may well find that actually
completing the optometry program and then applying to medical school may be
actually a faster route to become an ophthalmologist.
You may well find you're able to cut a few years off the number of steps that it
takes to get there just because as a fully qualified
optometrist, then you will usually be able to
start medical school perhaps from second year upon completing your degree program.
You may well find actually that it's easier for you
to be able to get into the highly competitive specialty of ophthalmology
because you've got this optometry background and also you may be able to
give out some of the stages of the training as well because of the,
you know, your degree in optometry and the knowledge that you already have.
So that's something to think about if
you're somebody who has your heart set on that.
I know people who have been
on the optometry training program and qualified and gone on to do
ophthalmology and consult ophthalmologists now.
And I certainly recommend that you thoroughly do your research asking
the right questions of the right people before you go and dive in.
You know, I certainly wouldn't want anybody calling me up in five years time
telling me that I ruined their life. Role and scope of work.
Optometry is a primary health care profession.
Now, what does this mean?
Well, it means it carries a huge amount of responsibility and it can potentially
be the difference between life and death for some people.
Now, that might sound quite dramatic, but an example and a quick case in point
is a story of a patient that I saw last year.
Some time this young girl was about 16 years old.
She's been getting quite dramatic
headaches for the last two weeks and, you know, literally every day.
So instantly it didn't sound right to me in the first place.
When examining the back of her
eyes, there were some very early signs
of swelling that was going on at the optic nerve at the back of the eyes.
So instantly alarm bells rang for me and I
knew I had to get her referred and seen by their department straightaway that day.
So upon arranging
that appointment and speaking with the consultant that their department,
we agree that she was going to come in and upon her going in within hours,
they had admitted she had to have fluid drained from her spinal cord.
And it turned out that she had this buildup of pressure in her in her head,
in a brain which needed to be reduced straight away.
And the scary thing for her was
that the hospital advised her that if she had not come in, you know, even that day,
it could have been a totally different outcome for her.
And this is essentially what I mean by being a primary health care professional.
It means that you have to have a burden
of training to be able to know what is normal and what is not normal
and a range of conditions and urgencies that they need to be referred and dealt
with so that you can be an effective person at screening and making sure
that people are protected that come to you as patients.
Optometrists examine for eye conditions and also are vigilant for other
non eye related conditions that may be visible through looking at the back of the eyes
and also along with the symptoms that people present that may be, you know,
non eye related things that you may be able to refer them to their family doctor about.
Optometrists make diagnosis on the conditions that they manage.
And they also make provisional diagnosis on the conditions that they referred
to ophthalmologist or to family doctors and other health care professionals.
Optometrists can manage a range of eye care conditions and more specifically,
those that do not require medical treatment or surgical intervention.
So Optometrists have a limited prescribing
rights, and this varies from country to country, perhaps from state to state.
And wherever you are in the world,
have optometrists in the United Kingdom have extended prescribing rates,
which means that they are able to prescribe a wider range of medications
for the treatment of conditions with a prescription only medication.
Optometrists can use certain drugs
for the purposes of making clinical diagnosis, so this includes the drops
that dilated pupils drops that relax your focus and also
anesthetic drops as well that help us to further investigate certain conditions.
Optometrists are able to fit and supply
contact lenses, as well as optical glasses and lenses with a prescription. Optometrist
can manage a range of binocular vision problems.
So these are a range of conditions
that affect how your eyes align and line up straight.
Usually, though, most optometrists will probably refer patients
on to the eye department, to professionals that we call Orthoptist.
Now, optometrists may choose to specialize
in some specialties, such as sports vision therapy.
I myself have qualifications in low vision and aging coal management of cataract
and ocular therapeutics and moving over to ophthalmologists.
I certainly in the UK,
ophthalmologists mainly operate as secondary healthcare professionals,
and this means that most of their patients come to them via referrals
from optometrists, family doctors and other health care professionals.
Ophthalmologists can of course,
operate as primary health care professionals as well.
And this often happens, though, when they're not in the hospital setting
because most referrals from optometrists and family doctors are sent to a hospital.
So if an ophthalmologist has a private
clinic, then you usually find that patients that come to them directly,
that may be a primary health care situation.
Now, the work of an ophthalmologist is all about making diagnosis and making calls
on surgical and medical treatments for the eyes.
Now, certainly in the United Kingdom, ophthalmologists are the only ones
that can certify a person legally blind or partially sighted.
Ophthalmologists treat eye and whole body
systemic and medical conditions with the use of prescription only medications.
And ophthalmologist carry eye surgery because it's a major part of their work.
The exact type of surgery that they will
do will depend on their chosen sub-specialty.
And ophthalmologist often specialize in two or three sub-specialties,
such as a vitro-retinal surgery, corneal surgery or even glaucoma.
Now, a lot of people don't know this, but the training of an ophthalmologist
does include the ability to do refractions, which means that they're able
to determine what glasses are you need and to be able to issue a prescription
for you to obtain glasses in terms of where they work.
There is overlap in this optometrist generally have a bit more
freedom and options in terms of the different environments
and the different scenarios in which they can work.
So optometrists can work in the community setting in a community practice.
They can also work in the hospital environment.
You get some optometrists who work as domiciliary optometrists.
That means they go out to your home to do the examination or they may go out to care
homes and do our examinations on the population of the care.
optometrists also work
in multidisciplinary practices where you have a mixture of health care
professionals such as dentists, ophthalmologists, family doctors, etc.
. And then finally, optometrists often can
work as well in vision, science, research and laboratory type environments.
Now, for the most part, ophthalmologists can be found work
in the hospital based settings, but they can also work and do often work
in private practices where they may run private glaucoma,
probably cataract clinics, and you may also find them
in multidisciplinary medical practices, although this is generally less common.
And then finally, there are a lot of ophthalmologists,
of course, involved in medical research and vision, science research.
Now, some people might argue that we
really don't need both of these eye care professionals.
And in fact, in the past, they have been a little bit of friction
between the two because of some of these overlaps.
Now, however, with time, a greater understanding has developed
between the two eye care professionals, which only really makes sense when we
think about the fact that we've got a hugely ageing population around
the world with, you know, really significant eye care conditions
on their eyes and only a small number of ophthalmologists and a relatively small
amounts of optometrists really tasked with trying to serve this population.
So the two have really learnt to work hand
in hand in a cooperative way with optometrists really being able
to screen out and filter out only the really essential medical or surgical
cases that need to be referred to the ophthalmologist and then
the ophthalmologist in turn, being able to focus on really these
essential medical needs and surgical needs that only they are capable of doing.
That's also worth mentioning that there are the eye care professionals
that are part of the wider eye care team, and this includes the dispensing optician,
also known as an optician in other parts of the world in the UK
we call them dispensing opticians
and they have their own qualifications and are registered as well.
And then we have Orthoptist as well.
Orthoptist mainly work in hospital
settings dealing with a binocular vision problems and dealing with child care,
binocular vision and coordination problems.
And these two eye care professionals often
don't receive the recognition that their work demands, but they are certainly
valuable members of the wider eye care team.
And that's perhaps a subject for another
video. Leave me a comment in the comments section below.
Let me know what your thoughts are on the difference between optometrist
versus ophthalmologist and if that has caused you confusion in the past as well.
So thank you for watching and I look forward to seeing you in the next video.
Take care.