Any ODs or CTL fitters want to get annoyed?...Read This

[Aarlan]

I came across this on another forum for prospective OD students, and this article has a bunch of ODs in an uproar. It is from the editor of 'Best Life' (owned by Mens Health).
What do you think?

One night a few years ago, I burst through the doors of a downtown hospital emergency room, staggering blind and in agony, and learned a few sharp lessons about American health care.

First, it's good to know that when you charge into a waiting room clutching your face and screaming, "My eyes! My eyes!" it tends to get taken relatively seriously, and you can quickly scoot ahead of the hematomas and heart palpitations and other humdrum health concerns piled up in the waiting room. (I may use this technique the next time I have a really bad splinter.)

I was on an examining table within minutes, and the ophthalmologist on duty quickly diagnosed that I had torn my cornea attempting to take out an ill-fitting contact lens, which had been prescribed for me by an optometrist in the back room of an eyeglasses store.

That was lesson number two: I'd been experiencing eye problems for a few years but never saw a specialist. If I had invested my time and money wisely, found a top ophthalmologist to give me an eye exam and properly fit me with contacts, I wouldn't have sheared away the outer layer of my eyeball trying to unstick what was stuck. But like most men, I took the easy way out and went to the local joint with the best frames in the window and the cutest optician behind the counter. Who would have thought that for something so simple, the right health-care provider would have made all the difference?

The best health care in the world exists right in this country, yet finding it is a struggle, and you have to be mercenary about demanding the right doctors' attention. So this month we sent the staff of Best Life poring over the studies and statistics and badgering the experts to identify the most important health issues for men and the single best place to go to address each of them.

Not all of these resources are available to all Americans; you need the means and the motivation to access the nation's best doctors. But you owe it to yourself, and your family, to click here and discover "America's Best Body Shops."

As for me, I've gotten religion when it comes to finding the perfect health-care provider -- I'll take even a case of poison ivy to be looked at by a specialist. Oh, and the contact lenses I'm wearing in the picture on this page? Prescribed by a top ophthalmologist, not by someone in the back of an eyeglasses store.
My wife and kids are too good-lookin' for me to settle for anything less.

Steve Perrine
Editor-in-chief

AA

btw, the best fitter I've ever had the pleasure of knowing was an Optician (not an OD or MD).

[fjpod]

Disgusting. Irresponsible journalism. It's only important to a member of the press when it affects them personally. Ask them to do a story about the importance of receiving regular professional care with contacts, and you get...ho hum.

[Aarlan]

Not to say that there aren't hack ODs out there, but a blanket statement that a 'top ophthalmologist' is more qualified than a top OD to fit CTLs is plain silliness.


AA

[Johns]

did you notcie the bitterness in the article ? Did you notice how he twice refered to the "back room"?

They rushed him in and examined him on a "table", for an eye "injury"?



My guess is that the optician that fit his contacts refused to release his Rx to 1-800 contacts after 4 or 5 years, and so this is his payback.

I guess this is just one more magazine that won't be in thousands of OD's waiting rooms. Readers digest often has a "Ways to SAave Money" issue that comes out every so often, and they tell you to run to the internet for the best savings on contacts AND glasses ! I go through my mags before I put them in the waiting room.

[drk]

All the top ophthalmologists I know are great contact lens fitters...hehe.

[Spexvet]

... I'd been experiencing eye problems for a few years but never saw a specialist.

My guess is that he's been have problems for a few years and didn't see ANYBODY!

[eyegirl]

He probably slept in his contacts for a year straight.
:drop:

[spartus]

Sheesh, y'all are so bitter. ;)

The really appropriate thing to do would be for all of us get together and write him a polite, professional "We, the undersigned" letter, explaining how irresponsible it is to dish out medical advice when you are entirely unqualified, and maybe he should have talked to a contact lens fitter, rather than claiming that the eyecare professional with the most education is obviously the best qualified to fit contacts. This is sort of like claiming that a heart surgeon is better at telling you to take baby aspirin for your chest pains, when your run-of-the-mill general practitioner is equally qualified.

I mean, hell, I see thread after thread complaining about how our profession(s) aren't properly respected. Here's the chance to actually make an impact. Do it or get off the pot.

Also, "I'm having chest pains" is probably the best way to jump the line at the ER. Just sayin'.

[fjpod]

Also, "I'm having chest pains" is probably the best way to jump the line at the ER. Just sayin'.

Nope. Gotta say "I'm having trouble breathing." :finger:

[Nettie]

Sheesh, y'all are so bitter. ;)

The really appropriate thing to do would be for all of us get together and write him a polite, professional "We, the undersigned" letter, explaining how irresponsible it is to dish out medical advice when you are entirely unqualified, and maybe he should have talked to a contact lens fitter, rather than claiming that the eyecare professional with the most education is obviously the best qualified to fit contacts. This is sort of like claiming that a heart surgeon is better at telling you to take baby aspirin for your chest pains, when your run-of-the-mill general practitioner is equally qualified.

I mean, hell, I see thread after thread complaining about how our profession(s) aren't properly respected. Here's the chance to actually make an impact. Do it or get off the pot.

Also, "I'm having chest pains" is probably the best way to jump the line at the ER. Just sayin'.

I'll sign that letter.
I am getting sick of people saying they have to see an Opthamologist for whatever reason.....like they had pinkeye once as a kid and so they need a "real doctor". I say "Oh so you must need some eye SURGERY, I understand." When they say they don't need surgery I explain that surgery is the only thing my OD CAN'T do.

[shellrob]

Nettie, we get that all the time too, or the ones that see their family doctor for an eye infection. I simply ask them why they didn't call us? And they usually say" I didn't know he did that". It's amazing that some people think that Optometrist only make glasses and fit contacts. The problem is...patients aren't educated enough.

[SpecialT]

Wow, what an article! This stuff can be very frustrating to an O.D. I have had to learn to let some of this mess slide. When I hear blatently false statements like this, I feel compelled to fight it immediately. Unfortunately, bashing this stuff publically rarely seems to work which is why I choose to change peoples perceptions in my exam lane. I don't think anyone is going to change this particular guy's mind, but the letters are a nice idea. When I went to school, I never thought I would have to answer to a life of repeated attacks like this. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do but I can't think of too many other legit professions that get this kind of unprovoked bad press.

[Johns]

I always feel better when I consider the source.

[Lady Nicole]

I went to the "Best Body Shops" link, and I couldn't help but notice they don't tell you where to go for eyecare. Everything else seems to be covered...

[Johns]

I also went to the sight, and that's why I said, "consider the source".

One of the articles was nothing more than soft porn, while the other was a "Dear Abby" type column asking the question: "How can I get my kids to respect me after I divorce their mother ?"

This is obviously a "must read" for all the intellectual males out there.

[spartus]

Nope. Gotta say "I'm having trouble breathing." :finger:

You're right--I was so concerned with being quite I lost interest in being accurate. ;)

[myodisc23]

It is ashame that one can not tell the difference between giving medical advice and entertainment concerning an artical found in some magazine!!!!

[Aarlan]

It is ashame that one can not tell the difference between giving medical advice and entertainment concerning an artical found in some magazine!!!!

?

AA

[The Critical Eye]

I certainly won't be purchasing a subscription to this magazine with
content like that. Looks like a case of needing an article to fill
white space just before going to press.