Hi Tim,

I teach refraction at our college, and I'm an optician, so I'll take a stab at what you are asking.

Yes, we teach alot of Binocular function during our 1 1/2 year (3 semester) course. And, I should point out, that our students have many semesters of Lens Theory and Design, Ophthalmic Dispensing Theories, Anatomy of the Eye, Contact Lenses, and Geometric, Mechanical and Physical Optics prior to touching the dials. And, because of the volume of Rx's we have worked with, I believe that opticians are very well suited in tuning into the subjective responses.

We also use Optometry text books (Theodore Grosvenor's Primary Care Optometry and Irving Borish's Subjective Binocular Refraction). These are required texts...not just for reference.

Duochrome, Binocular Balance, Range of Clear Vision, Maddox Prism Rod and Vertical and Horizontal Phoria testing is very much a part of my curriculum.

I agree that there must be a medical test performed at some point...however, it may be done by an ophthalmologist next door, or even down the street. Personally, I believe that young children should be excluded from our practice. I believe that young children should only go to a pediatric ophthalmologist or a specialist in orthoptics.

One person here posted an "either/or" scenario, and I completely agree:

Either OD's and MD's stop selling that which they prescribe, and we may not feel the need to move forward with the refraction issue.

Or, the MD's and OD's continue the path (especially the OD's getting more into pathologies here) and we move into the area of refraction. I see this as a normal evolution of ALL of our professions.

: )

Laurie