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Optometry is a specialized health care profession that involves examining the eyes and related structures for defects or abnormalities. Optometrists are health care professionals who typically provide comprehensive primary eye care.
Orthoptics is a profession allied to the eye care profession. Orthoptists are the experts in diagnosing and treating defects in eye movements and problems with how the eyes work together, called binocular vision. These can be caused by issues with the muscles around the eyes or defects in the nerves enabling the brain to communicate with the eyes. Orthoptists are responsible for the diagnosis and non-surgical management of strabismus (cross-eyed), amblyopia and eye movement disorders. The word orthoptics comes from the Greek words ὀρθός orthos, "straight" and ὀπτικός optikοs, "relating to sight" and much of the practice of orthoptists concerns disorders of binocular vision and defects of eye movement. Orthoptists are trained professionals who specialize in orthoptic treatment, such as eye patches, eye exercises, prisms or glasses. They commonly work with paediatric patients and also adult patients with neurological conditions such as stroke, brain tumours or multiple sclerosis. With specific training, in some countries orthoptists may be involved in monitoring of some forms of eye disease, such as glaucoma, cataract screening and diabetic retinopathy.
Strabismus is a vision disorder in which the eyes do not properly align with each other when looking at an object. The eye that is pointed at an object can alternate. The condition may be present occasionally or constantly. If present during a large part of childhood, it may result in amblyopia, or lazy eyes, and loss of depth perception. If onset is during adulthood, it is more likely to result in double vision.
Amblyopia, also called lazy eye, is a disorder of sight in which the brain fails to fully process input from one eye and over time favors the other eye. It results in decreased vision in an eye that typically appears normal in other aspects. Amblyopia is the most common cause of decreased vision in a single eye among children and younger adults.
Pediatric ophthalmology is a sub-speciality of ophthalmology concerned with eye diseases, visual development, and vision care in children.
Vision therapy (VT), or behavioral optometry, is an umbrella term for alternative medicine treatments using eye exercises, based around the scientific evidences that vision problems are the true underlying cause of learning difficulties, particularly in children. Vision therapy has not been shown to be effective according to modern evidence-based medicine. Most claims—for example that the therapy can address neurological, educational, and spatial difficulties—lack supporting evidence. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics nor the American Academy of Ophthalmology support the use of vision therapy.
Exotropia is a form of strabismus where the eyes are deviated outward. It is the opposite of esotropia and usually involves more severe axis deviation than exophoria. People with exotropia often experience crossed diplopia. Intermittent exotropia is a fairly common condition. "Sensory exotropia" occurs in the presence of poor vision in one eye. Infantile exotropia is seen during the first year of life, and is less common than "essential exotropia" which usually becomes apparent several years later.
Convergence insufficiency is a sensory and neuromuscular anomaly of the binocular vision system, characterized by a reduced ability of the eyes to turn towards each other, or sustain convergence.
An eye care professional (ECP) is an individual who provides a service related to the eyes or vision. It is any healthcare worker involved in eye care, from one with a small amount of post-secondary training to practitioners with a doctoral level of education.
The Illinois College of Optometry (ICO) is a private optometry college in Chicago, Illinois. Graduating approximately 160 optometrists a year, it is the largest optometry college in the United States and the oldest continually operating educational facility dedicated solely to the teaching of optometrists. The college complex incorporates more than 366,000 square feet (34,000 m2) including an on-site eye care clinic, electronically enhanced lecture center, library, computerized clinical learning equipment, cafeteria, fitness center, and living facilities.
Fixation disparity is a tendency of the eyes to drift in the direction of the heterophoria. While the heterophoria refers to a fusion-free vergence state, the fixation disparity refers to a small misalignment of the visual axes when both eyes are open in an observer with normal fusion and binocular vision. The misalignment may be vertical, horizontal or both. The misalignment is much smaller than that of strabismus. While strabismus prevents binocular vision, fixation disparity keeps binocular vision, however it may reduce a patient's level of stereopsis. A patient may or may not have fixation disparity and a patient may have a different fixation disparity at distance than near. Observers with a fixation disparity are more likely to report eye strain in demanding visual tasks; therefore, tests of fixation disparity belong to the diagnostic tools used by eye care professionals: remediation includes vision therapy, prism eye glasses, or visual ergonomics at the workplace.
Suppression of an eye is a subconscious adaptation by a person's brain to eliminate the symptoms of disorders of binocular vision such as strabismus, convergence insufficiency and aniseikonia. The brain can eliminate double vision by ignoring all or part of the image of one of the eyes. The area of a person's visual field that is suppressed is called the suppression scotoma. Suppression can lead to amblyopia.
Hypertropia is a condition of misalignment of the eyes (strabismus), whereby the visual axis of one eye is higher than the fellow fixating eye. Hypotropia is the similar condition, focus being on the eye with the visual axis lower than the fellow fixating eye. Dissociated vertical deviation is a special type of hypertropia leading to slow upward drift of one or rarely both eyes, usually when the patient is inattentive.
Arthur Marten Skeffington was an American optometrist known to some as "the father of behavioral optometry". Skeffington has been credited as co-founding the Optometric Extension Program with E.B. Alexander in 1928. In the mid-1950s, Skeffington first diagrammed his "four circles" model of describing visual processing.
The International Orthoptic Association represents over 20,000 orthoptists, in over 20 countries.
The health effects of 3D are the aspects in which the human body is altered after the exposure of three-dimensional (3D) graphics. These health effects typically only occur when viewing stereoscopic, autostereoscopic, and multiscopic displays. Newer types of 3D displays like light field or holographic displays do not cause the same health effects. The viewing of 3D stereoscopic stimuli can cause symptoms related to vision disorders that the individual already had, as a person with a healthy binocular vision shouldn't experience any side effects under three-dimensional exposure.
Stereopsis recovery, also recovery from stereoblindness, is the phenomenon of a stereoblind person gaining partial or full ability of stereo vision (stereopsis).
Frederick W. Brock (1899–1972), born in Switzerland, was an optometrist, a major contributor to vision therapy, and the inventor of various vision therapy devices including the Brock string. Brock's approach to treating eye disorders was crucial in paving the way to overcoming an erroneous but long-standing medical consensus that stereopsis could not be acquired in adulthood but only during a critical period early in life: neuroscientist Susan R. Barry, the first person to have received widespread media attention for having acquired stereo vision in adulthood, attributes him a central role in her recovery of stereopsis, a discovery which in turn influenced the prevalent scientific conceptions with regard to the neuroplasticity of the visual system.
Alternating occlusion training, also referred to as electronic rapid alternate occlusion, is an approach to amblyopia and to intermittent central suppression in vision therapy, in which electronic devices such as programmable shutter glasses or goggles are used to block the field of view of one eye in rapid alternation.
Susan A. Cotter is a professor of optometry at the Southern California College of Optometry (SCCO) at Marshall B. Ketchum University where she teaches in the classroom and clinic, works with the residents, and conducts clinical researches. Her scientific work is related to related to clinical management strategies for strabismus, amblyopia, non-strabismic binocular vision disorders, and childhood refractive error.
References
- 1 2 David A. Goss. "History of Optometry." Web posted lecture handout. Accessed November 10, 2020.
- 1 2 http://www.opt.indiana.edu/ohs/sample.htm Archived 2006-09-18 at the Wayback Machine Hindsight: Newsletter of the Optometric Historical Society. Vol. 29, Jul. 1998, No. 3. Accessed September 19, 2006.
- 1 2 "A.M. Skeffington, O.D.: The Father of Behavioral Optometry." Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine Visionaries (Reprinted from January–December 1991 Issues of Review of Optometry) Copyright 1999 Review of Optometry. Accessed September 19, 2006.
- ↑ "Team of the Century. Oklahoma Association of Optometric Physicians. Accessed September 19, 2006. [Note: This reference credits E.B. Alexander and Billy Farmer as co-founders of the optometric extension program.]
