Are the guys in glasses shop ophthalmologists?

So i’ve notice my eye sight getting a little worst. I keep going to the glasses shop to check and get contacts but they guy keeps saying my contact degree is about right but I notice things becoming more and more bleary. Should i be going to the hospital or a clinic for eyes?

This may be a sign that you’re starting to develop astigmatism. Most shops have trained optometrists, some better than others, and will be able to diagnose whether you have astigmatism. Problem is, you’ll probably have to wear glasses to correct for it properly. There are toric contacts that can correct for astigmatism, but they’re expensive, kind of a hassle, and don’t always correct fully. But if you’re really set on wearing contacts instead of glasses, they are an option.

hmm it looks like it from the symptoms. I’ve been thinking about getting lasix or whatever eye surgery for a while. My eye sight is pretty bad, -6.50 on both eyes. I wonder if they can fix that as well.

LASIK can correct for astigmatism, but there’s no guarantee that it’ll be 100%. Best results come from wearing glasses, unfortunately. You should probably go to an ophthalmologist for a full eye exam in any case to rule out things like cataracts and macular degeneration.

And if you’re still doing full-contact fighting, you may want to reconsider. Given your degree of nearsightedness, you’re at a much higher risk for retinal detachment if you receive any head blows.

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With a potentially serious situation like this–why mess around with your eyesight?–you might consider visiting a specialist in a hospital. If you’re able to put up with the crowds, I can recommend the opthamologists at Mackay Hospital (Taipei Branch, steps from Shuanglian Station).
The doctors I’ve met are highly professional–they figured out my eye problem after it had been misdiagnosed by two other doctors in Taipei. Hope you sort this out!

Guy

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I had no idea that nearsightedness increases the risk of retinal detachment. I mostly light spar now, come heavy contact spar at 75%. But I haven’t taken a full contact competitive fight in a while. That’s something I’ll certainly think about.

Thanks for the recommendation. I don’t mind the wait as long as they figure it out. I love NHI hear and how affordable everything is. But sometimes I feel like the doctors just rush you in and out and miss a lot of things so I don’t even bother. If it’s serious I usually go to a private specialist and pay out of pocket.

Yeah. You get nearsighted because your eye becomes elongated front to back, and the change in the shape of your eyeball puts increasing stress on your retina, which makes it much more prone to damage. Even a not too heavy tap in or around your eye can cause a detachment.

I speak from experience. My prescription is pretty close to yours, and I had to stop practicing wing chun after a retinal detachment. The hit to my eye was pretty light…it didn’t hurt at all. I barely noticed it, but it still caused a detachment. I asked the doctor what level of contact I could do in the future, and he said none at all was best.

No, they would be opticians and one optometrist.
For an ophthalmologist you should indeed be going to either a specialist clinic or the hospital.
https://www.aapos.org/terms/conditions/132

Not a problem! Just sent you a pm.

Guy

what is your fighting discipline Andrew0409

Can’t find a link and I hope the wife can find a mandarin one, but an optometrist in HsinChu apparently fell into his lens grinder.

He made a spectacle of himself.

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My knowledge based on working 1 year in an ophthalmologists office in the U.S., but in no way being a medical professional (I abandoned those horrible dreams…):

Peeps in glasses dispensing shops are usually optometrists, who focus mostly on vision-related issues. Sometimes though, they’ll still run some brief medical tests (such as visual field tests, where you stare into this machine and click a button every time you see a flashing light to test your peripheral vision; or a pressure test where they test internal eye pressure as a screening point for glaucoma). That ‘staring-at-a-balloon’ test is to test your eye curvature/astigmatism and give a brief eval of your prescription, but mostly they’ll just go based off of your last reading, current glasses prescription, or current contact prescription. Mostly, you pass through these guys to get a pair of prescription glasses or prescriptions for contacts. They’ll be pretty well versed on visual acuity, nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, etc, and basic medical stuff.

Ophthalmologists on the other hand are medical doctors that specialize on eye health in general. They’ll be versed on the ins n outs of vision correction but they’re primary purpose is to diagnose and treat any internal shit going on with your eye. Sometimes ophthalmologist private practices will employ optometrists to delegate the vision aspect of eye care to them so they can focus on other stuff of the eye, but I’m not sure if arrangements are similar in a hospital setting. As a point of screening, though, usually vision is still always checked when you walked into an ophthalmologist office.

+1 to Dr_Milker’s point about retinal detachment.

TL;DR:
There could be an internal problem with your eye that’s affecting your vision. I’d get it medically checked. You only get two eyes.

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Thanks for the clear info. Looks like I will go to see someone to make sure. It’s a bit frustrating as things far and close have gotten bleary and come in and out of focus. I started noticing it playing baseball. It got harder and harder to hit the ball.

If you’ve been spending a lot of time staring at a screen, this may also be a case of what they call “computer eye strain.” Things coming in and out of focus is a symptom. You may try laying off the video games for a while and see if things improve.

Right now glasses shop personnel is still unlicensed. Some know what they are doing and others just know how to operate the computer and sell glasses. This will however change soon. Until then I suggest you get your prescription from an eye doctor.

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