Geriatric Optometrist

An old body is like an old car. Just ask any Auto Mechanic: Because it’s logged so many miles, all its parts are bound to break sooner or later. Among the first to go? The eyes, which require the assistance of a Geriatric Optometrist when they start to deteriorate.

When you’re a Geriatric Optometrist, you’re an Optometrist — a Doctor of the eyes — who specializes in treating elderly patients. Like all Optometrists, you conduct eye exams and prescribe glasses and contact lenses when your patients need them. Because you specialize in geriatrics, however, you do a lot more than give people glasses. You’ve also got a laser focus on ocular conditions that commonly affect people over age 65, such as macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma.

Often employed by hospitals and nursing homes, you diagnose and treat these and other ocular conditions when surgery or medication isn’t required, and refer patients to an Ophthalmologist when they are. (After all, you’re not a Physician; only Ophthalmologists are.) The result: Not only do you help elderly people see better, but in so doing, you also help them maintain a more independent lifestyle.

According to the American Optometric Association, the percentage of Americans aged 65 or older has more than tripled since 1900. What’s more, the number of older Americans is expected to be nearly 70 million by 2030 — twice the number there was in 1997. It seems to reason, then: As a Geriatric Optometrist, you’re probably one of the most in-demand Optometrists there is!