Please have your eyesight checked regularly!

[Andrew MacLean]

Gareth

If you did that, you would have no way of knowing what was "Best Practice"!

Anne

As usual, you have hit the nail right on the head.

Andrew

[Sweet]

Before i came to London i had never heard of optometrists, we call them all opticians!

From my thinking now, opticians make up lens prescriptions for glasses but an optometrist needs to prescribe these and deal with lenses.

Opthalmologists are doctors and surgeons!

Hehe i might have it wrong now!! But it is fine with me.

Hhmm guess i need to go for a check up then as i have only seen my consultant once in the three years i have been in London.

[Andrew MacLean]

I agree one hundred percent that ophthalmologists are doctors and surgeons who specialize in conditions of the eye.

As to the distinction between optometrists and opticians, that excapes me. Could it be that some optometrists are also opticians but not all opticians are optometrists?

Andrew

[Michael P]

As to the distinction between optometrists and opticians, that excapes me. Could it be that some optometrists are also opticians but not all opticians are optometrists?

Andrew

Andrew, as a layman I would say that is probably spot on

[GarethB]

Andrew,

As long as we have Lynn and Ali we will always have best practice

[Andrew MacLean]

Oh, I thought that, in the UK, it was only Scotland that was wise enough to give free eye tests to all. I did understand Lynne to have said that there was still a major disinsentive to people in England and Wales going for an eye test where problems like KC could be identified.

You see, Best Practice is not an ephemoral idea. it involves real people making real decisions and giving effect to real changes.

Andrew

[Lesley Foster]

Thanks for that Pat, I don't know about you tho but I'm still confused

I thought most high street opticians ie Dolland & Aitchison, Boots and Specsavers tested your eyes to get the prescription you need for your glasses/contact lenses and then made them up for you. At least that's what mine did in Yeovil and here in Southam. Does that make them optomotrists?

Lesley.

[Lesley Foster]

Have just found this site

http://www.eyezone.co.uk/pages/glossary.php

hope it helps.

Lesley

[GarethB]

Today I got my next appointment for trying glasses to see if we can get good balanced vision. In the same envelope (good old NHS saving money properly) was an appiontment in August for a full eye health check.

Do you think my optom in Coventry has been browsing the forum?

[John Smith]

Thanks for the link, Lesley. I've put a summary of it up in the Frequently Asked Questions forum.

Perhaps we also need an FAQ entry for all those letters after the names of optical professionals so that we can tell who does what?! Can you oblige please, Lynn?