Pupillary Pathways

As a student in optometry school, I was always curious to know what it would entail to have a particular job. I often tried to research online, but found that connecting with people who were a few years ahead of me in their careers was the most critical part of determining where I wanted to be after graduation.

Pre-optometry school, my exposure to the profession had only been private practice optometry and retail settings, as I had worked in both before beginning school. Throughout my professional training, I wondered why there were procedures I was seeing for the first time, despite having experience and being present in an optometry office working as a technician.

Optometry offers a lot of flexibility when it comes to practice settings and environments. However, from a new graduate’s standpoint, it’s hard to get an honest representation of a practice setting without actually spending time within.

Some students never have exposure to a particular practice setting until after graduation when it’s time to look for a job. Knowing what you’re getting yourself into is a very important part of the initial job search.

Here are some pros and cons compiled by anonymous docs that can help you determine which common practice setting is right for you. This post is intended to help guide the initial job search. By no means does this replace the value of actual experiences!

What happens if I don't pass the TMOD^® ?

This is a question that runs through every single student’s mind while studying for NBEO^® Part II. In fact, it’s probably one of the most researched topics when it comes to Part II. So, whether you’re purely just wondering, or you actually have to take TMOD^® again, here is some info to ease your mind and help you prepare.

In the previous blog post, we talked about the similarities and differences between NBEO^® Part I and NBEO® Part II. Taking all of the differences into consideration, it is important to know exactly how to dive into a PAM^® case and answer the questions effectively and efficiently.

The NBEO^® website offers many tools that can be used to study as well as a handful of real PAM^® cases to familiarize you with the format. As mentioned before, it is very important to have access to quality PAM^® cases written by experts to make sure all of the important points are covered while preparing for the exam.

Chances are that if you’ve made it through the first three years of optometry school, then you probably know how to take an exam. Exams are a part of the standard process of learning.

However, NBEO® Part II is structured very differently from all of the rest of the exams that you have taken during and prior to optometry school. Because the format is unfamiliar to most, the way you study should be tailored to this format in order to avoid unnecessary amounts of stress and common mistakes during the examination.

Most patients dismiss itchy eyes thinking that this common symptom is tied to their seasonal allergies, which they’ve learned to deal with over the years. Many go on with their day-to-day lives accepting that itchy eyes are normal and there to stay.

The worst part is, some will just use any and every eye drop they find in hopes of relief, not knowing that just like many other conditions, the incorrect medication will very often make the condition worse.

Optometry students and even young optometrists often fear the day they see their first viral infection, regardless of the etiology. In fact, viral infections can be one of the trickiest types of infections to treat. Starting off, I had a hard time knowing what to prescribe and when to prescribe in terms of viral conjunctivitis.

However, I’ve figured out that the once intimidating antiviral class of drugs is probably one of the easiest classes of drugs to prescribe and differentiate!

Antibiotics are one of the most common types of pharmaceuticals prescribed by physicians. There are many different classes of antibiotics, each useful for a different subset of conditions.

Antibiotics are mainly used for, but not limited to, conditions related to the front surface of the eye. Many practitioners pick their antibiotic of choice and prescribe, overlooking the general health and allergic history of the patient. 

Today, we will review the many different antibiotics relevant to eye care and available to ODs, their indications, and most importantly, when to use caution!

In the last two blog posts we discussed details about the key players in glaucoma treatment and management. It is important to note that we sometimes can combine these medications together to increase patient compliance and convenience.

In efforts to wrap up our comprehensive outline of common glaucoma medications, we will discuss a group of less widely used glaucoma medications, miotics, as well as review the combination drugs that are popular and available today!

In the last blog post, we covered first-line glaucoma medications, Prostaglandin analogs, and Beta-blockers. Besides these key players, there are a few more categories of glaucoma medications that surely deserve recognition. Let’s review alpha-2 agonists and carbonic anhydrase inhibitors!