Confused? Medicine or Optometry?

[Dr.T]

Hello!
I am currently in my third year of Optometry and have one more year to go before I graduate, however, I am having second thoughts about my degree. :( I am interested in doing LASIK so I am thinking of going into medical school and then doing a residency in Opthalmology (which is extremely competitive!). If I don't get into Ophthalmology, then I'll be a general physician and that's not really what I want to do... I'm confused!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[Johns]

I guess it would depend on why you are having second thoughts about optometry. What is your motivation for either optometry or ophthalmology?

[Dr.T]

I guess it would depend on why you are having second thoughts about optometry. What is your motivation for either optometry or ophthalmology?

Thanks for replying!

I love optometry and I love the patients I see etc etc, but I really would like to do LASIK surgery...In order for me to do that, I would need to do a whole different degree! I'm wondering if it would even be worth it in the end. After med school, if I don't get a residency in ophthalmology, the medicine degree would be pointless (in my opinion, since I want to work in this field).

[uncut]

I still don't know what I wanna be when I grow up, either!

That being said............an interest in tattoing a current prescription, with, pushing a button on a rented laser.............imo is not what ophthalmology is all about. Besides, the money's not in it. See your current low buck ad in your daily paper, with do-not-pay financing till 2019.

If you had said " I want to discover how to cure kerataconus, or presbyopia, or glaucoma, permanently. I want to do surgeries to fix people's sight that have been blinded by accident/a genetic or nutritional deficiency, in the world." Then I would say become an ophthalmologist, if you can hack the training, and time it takes to become one.

[Dr.T]

Ya that's true! It's ashame that Optometrist's can't perform this!!

[fjpod]

I would not pick a profession based on performing any single procedure. While LASIK is well entrenched, it barely existed 20 years ago, and may be extinct 20 years from now. The 3 Os, and healthcare professions in general, are people/service professions. Be comfortable and happy with that first. Also realize that healthcare today is a highly regulated business.

[LandLord]

Why are you having second thoughts in your third year? If it's about making as much money as possible, I suggest studying how to make money instead of studying eyecare.

[Johns]

I still don't know what I wanna be when I grow up, either!

That being said............an interest in tattoing a current prescription, with, pushing a button on a rented laser.............imo is not what ophthalmology is all about. Besides, the money's not in it. See your current low buck ad in your daily paper, with do-not-pay financing till 2019.

If you had said " I want to discover how to cure kerataconus, or presbyopia, or glaucoma, permanently. I want to do surgeries to fix people's sight that have been blinded by accident/a genetic or nutritional deficiency, in the world." Then I would say become an ophthalmologist, if you can hack the training, and time it takes to become one.

I would not pick a profession based on performing any single procedure.

Great answers both. That's the angle I was looking at. Why? And why Lasik? Why go through all that, and utilize such a narrow component of a vast field?