h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hiya Teasswill, gotta question for you. As you were able to identify the keratokonus or whatever it was I had, I take it you have an understanding to at least some degree of opticianing ( ).
Do you know if opticians are Dr.s and if not why not?

Oh! You made me jump there!

To put it in a nutshell, opticians fall into two categories;
at the bottom so to speak, Dispensing opticians who do a college course post A-level & are then qualified to fit & supply spectacles.
Then there are the wonderful Opthalmic Opticians, these days more often called Optometrists, who do a university degree course followed by a pre-registration year & qualifying exams, who are then able to examine eyes, prescribe spectacles & dispense them.
At the top of the tree are Ophthalmologists who have done a medical degree & are therefore doctors, who have gone on to specialise in ophthalmology (& often have an FRCS so are called Mr) who examine eyes, diagnose & treat eye conditions & may prescribe spectacles.
There also used to be an odd category of doctors who did an extra course to be ophthalmic medical practitioners, but I'm not sure if you cans till do that.
Does that answer your question?
Guess which I am!

er, let me guess...

A FRCS is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons yes? And the 'Mr' thing is presumably to show that they are not just a doctor. Seems a bit odd that you do a load of work to be a Dr. then do a load more and go back to being a Mr or Mrs or Ms!

Thankyou

What's more confusing is that I'm an optometrist in an eye hospital - patients don't know what to call us. (Particularly as in the course of one visit they may see a variety of specialists.) I know the current ethos is all about telling patients your name, but I prefer to be as anonymous as possible!

I see, perfecting the innocent 'What? me? No, I'm just the porter' for the difficult patients eh?

Which reminds me, must go see mine again! Apart from anything else I want some of those uv eye drops for when I go out, really freaks people if you turn up with glowing yellow eyes

Glowing green at the ?
I feel sorry for the people I see in the street near the hospital with orange streaks down their faces!