Is the field of Optometry respected?

[Futureeyedocgirl]

When people ask me where I'm going for grad school, I say I'm going to optometry school and then the confusion begins. The response I usually get is " oh, you won't actually be a doctor." I understand optometry school is not like medical school, but its not easy either. Are people just ignorant or is this how it truly is?

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[SpartanWolverine]

I think a lot of that has to do with you as a practitioner. But...

From my outside-of-the-field view: is there generally respect from the lay public? Yes. To most people, you're their eye doctor. I don't see why anyone would respect their optometrist any more or less than their primary care physician or dentist.

Is there respect from physicians? Sure. The vast majority of physicians have mutual respect for optometrists, dentists, podiatrists, etc.

But yes... in general, people are ignorant.

 

[odieoh]

The confusion carries over to both sides of the fence. I'm an ophthalmologist, but occasionally I'll have a patient who sees our letterhead or signage and will make a comment "Oh, so you call yourself "Doctor" eh?" I just smile and say "Yup." As an MD I don't feel the need to defend my training, but I think that applies to optometrists as well. You're an eye doctor too.

 

[OpticalBlackOut]

When people ask me where I'm going for grad school, I say I'm going to optometry school and then the confusion begins. The response I usually get is " oh, you won't actually be a doctor." I understand optometry school is not like medical school, but its not easy either. Are people just ignorant or is this how it truly is?

That is usually the first impression patients will have if they don't have much experience visiting medical offices. However, I've found that after completion of a thorough and caring exam, patients will form their own opinions on your skill level and usually respect is gained instead of presumed.

 

[Groucho Marx]

Somebody at a party once said, "Oh, you're not real doctors."
I was having a good time, so I just walked away and talked to other people.

 

[Smart Money MD]

I think the confusion goes both ways. You will get comments and confusion either way you go.

 

[KHE]

Somebody at a party once said, "Oh, you're not real doctors."
I was having a good time, so I just walked away and talked to other people.

I haven't gotten that in forever but my standard response has always been:

"No, I'm not a real doctor. I'm a doctor like Julius Erving is a doctor but I get paid like a real doctor so I'm totally cool with it."

 

[ComputerGuy365]

You are a doctor. A doctor of optometry.

 

[UOP123321]

Acoording to Wikepdia. "Optometry is a health care profession concerned with the eyes and related structures, as well as vision, visual systems, and vision information processing in humans. Optometrists[1] (also known as ophthalmic opticians outside the United States and Canada ) are trained to prescribe and fit lenses to improve vision, and in some countries are trained to diagnose and treat various eye diseases.
In the United States, Canada, Nigeria and Ghana, optometrists are known as doctors of optometry and are held to the same legal standards as physicians (which are accountable to state or provincial medical boards in the United States and Canada)"

So you are officially a doctor and held the same standards as physicians

 

[Bettner Vision]

Somebody at a party once said, "Oh, you're not real doctors."
I was having a good time, so I just walked away and talked to other people.

Haha, I can only imagine a confused look on their face as you walked away.

 

[MybuttsHadouken]

When people ask me where I'm going for grad school, I say I'm going to optometry school and then the confusion begins. The response I usually get is " oh, you won't actually be a doctor." I understand optometry school is not like medical school, but its not easy either. Are people just ignorant or is this how it truly is?

I was told I was the scum of the earth....

















kidding

 

[willwash]

You are a doctor. A doctor of optometry.

By that logic lawyers with their JDs are doctors

 

[ComputerGuy365]

By that logic lawyers with their JDs are doctors

Yeah, just not medical doctors.

 

[Snakedoctor1]

These arguments are so ridiculous. My Dentist goes by Dr, my Orthodontist goes by Dr, my cousin who just graduated from Pharmacy goes by Dr, as does my brother who has a PhD in Psychology. When I graduate Optometry school I will also go by Dr. None of us are medical doctors, and yet we are still called "Doctor" because that is what happens when you get your doctorate degree. Nobody is masquerading as an MD because they claim to be Dr. so and so. You guys can have these technicality arguments all day long. In the end, the patient will know who they are seeing for what reason. The proof is in the provider.

 

[IandI]

Don't understand why this question keeps coming up....respect yourself!!
The rest falls in place.