Myopia And Optometry

The scope of optometric care in clinical and educational settings is quite broad, but in private practice it is rarely possible for an optometrist to offer this full range of service.
A majority offer contact lens services, but not everyone offers low vision services. And few offer the electrodiagnostic and biodiagnostic services that are now available in larger clinics. A private practitioner, of necessity, has limitations on the patients he can properly care for. But no optometrist can exclude the myope from his professional
care. Myopes are as routine to optometrists as children are to pediatricians. They are seen day after day, and receive professional care that is derived from each optometrist's
understanding of ametropia, its etiology and its progression. Professional opinions are likely to be different depending upon a practitioner's frame of reference. "Standard optometry," says Margach, "holds that vision is largely a composite of a group of human behaviors that, like the knee jerk, are genetically predetermined. This is opposed by functional optometry which holds vision "as a learned human behavior •••subject to
significant modifications through environmental influences, both controlled and uncontrolled. If genetics is the only determiner of refractive error, then little can be done apart from compensation for that refractive error. But if ametropia is created by, or at least increased by detrimental, environmental influences, then it is logical to assume a position of prevention or control. It is this reasoning which has brought a large number of eye care practitioners into the arena of myopia control. A review of the literature regarding myopia, its etiology, and its control, is worthwhile.