Explainer

There are a number of specialists working to look after the nation's eyes and sometimes it is difficult to know exactly who does what.

The UK's 10,000 or so optometrists, found most commonly in high street practices, are often the first line of defence in eye healthcare and they are the ones to go to for regular eye tests.

Regulated by the General Optical Council, they are qualified to examine eyes and to detect diseases or other abnormalities in the eye, and to test sight and prescribe glasses or contact lenses to correct refractive errors.

These specialists are also known as ophthalmic opticians, or just plain opticians, but they should not be confused with the nation's 4,000 dispensing opticians.

Also regulated by the GOC, dispensing opticians are qualified to supply and fit low vision aids, glasses and contact lenses to prescriptions provided by optometrists, ophthalmic medical practitioners or ophthalmologists.

You might also find your eyes being examined by one of 800 ophthalmic medical practitioners: registered doctors with a qualification in ophthalmology who, like optometrists, carry out eye examinations, diagnose problems and prescribe lenses.

Ophthalmic medical practitioners must be registered with both the General Medical Council and the Ophthalmic Qualifications Committee, which is administered by the British Medical Association.

If any disease or abnormality is detected during your eye examination, you will be referred to your GP who, if necessary, will send you to one of the 1,400 ophthalmologists in the UK.

An ophthalmologist is a doctor who usually works in a hospital ophthalmology department and who is qualified to treat diseases and injuries of the eye and to carry out any necessary surgery.

Another key specialist is the orthoptist, an allied health professional who specialises in problems with eye movement, such as squint (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia), and the development of binocular vision. For this reason the UK's 1,300 orthoptists, who work in hospitals and the community, spend a lot of their time working with children and play a lead role in sight-screening of children between the ages of four and five.

Weblinks

College of Optometrists:
college-optometrists.org

Association of British Dispensing Opticians:
abdo.org.uk

Royal College of Ophthalmologists:
rcophth.ac.uk

British and Irish Orthoptic Society:
orthoptics.org.uk

General Optical Council:
optical.org