Over the years I’ve come to realise that a large proportion of the population think that you go to the optician to get glasses or contact lenses…it’s not an unreasonable thing to think. Why else would you go?

Put it this way, if someone makes a hash of your glasses does it damage your eyes? If the prescription is too strong, does it make you more dependent on them? If it is too weak does it ‘strain’ your eyes? Actually, there is a really sound body of research which shows that it does you no harm at all! You might get double vision and put the car over the central reservation into the path of an oncoming truck. This would not be great for your eyes, but it does not harm them directly.

What about contact lenses? Well they are a bit different. An ill-fitting contact lens can cause permanent damage to your eyes but this is really very unlikely. I have seen a few really terrible contact lens fittings and I don’t think I have ever seen someone who has irreparable damage.

So if the glasses don’t really matter and the contact lenses don’t really matter* , why indeed do we go to the optician? I regularly see patients who have permanent vision loss through missed or undiagnosed eye disease. This means that the quality of your eye examination is the important bit. Early detection means early treatment and early treatment means ‘better treatment outcomes’. ‘Better treatment outcomes’ means more comfortable, healthier eyes which see better.

Well, aren’t all opticians (optometrists really) equally qualified? Yes, but does that mean that all optometrists pick up all clinical signs of sinister changes in your eyes at every appointment? Absolutely not – unfortunately, what we do is a bit more difficult than that. It’s more a gathering of information, a building up of a picture over time. Sometimes, with really complicated cases where there are two or three coexisting conditions (often with complicating factors like the patient having special needs or being a commercial airline pilot or something), it is the second or third examination before the penny drops for me and I truly feel like I understand why a person’s eyes are behaving the way they are. Equally, to know if something has shifted, you need to know what it was like to begin with – see the same person every time, it is proven that you get better care.

The examination is not a perfect process and some optometrists are more motivated than others, some are more capable than others and some are simply completely hobbled by the management practices of the business they are working in. I have done back to back 15 minute eye examinations and in my opinion, they are safe if you have nothing wrong with you. This opinion is borne out by the recent Which report (see below) that stated patients with complicated eyes got the worst standard of care in high street opticians – our business practices mean that it’s always been easier for me to keep healthy
patients healthy.

You go to the optician to have a highly-trained, intelligent, motivated healthcare professional examine your eyes and visual system with enthusiasm and precision in order to give you the best chance of getting early treatment should you need it…that’s the bit that really matters.

Andrew Petticrew BSc(Hons) MCOptom

Optometrist, Managing Director, Office Dogsbody, CEO and Ship’s Cat.

*The Petticrew Optometrists legal department (i.e. the other part of my brain) would like to highlight that Petticrew Optometrists takes an extraordinary amount of care to ensure that both our glasses and contact lenses are the most suitable product as well as the very best quality available anywhere in the world, no less! We know they do matter really.

We reckon that the problem with marketing is that everyone says they are good…well, don’t take it from us, here is some of the lovely things our patients have said about us in the last three months:

1. “You two girls are the best receptionists I have ever come across, and as a team with Andrew your warmth does really excel any other experiences I have had. I would never think of going to any other Opticians.” J.P. Belfast
2. “Thanks for the kindness and warmth that you have shown to me, I have been telling my sister in Canada about you here and when she visits next year she would like to call in and meet you all.” E.M. Banbridge
3. “What a welcome…where else would you get it?” J.M. Belfast
4. “It’s so nice coming in here. You are just lovely.” H.M. Aghalee
5. “Andrew is very good…better than Boots, better than Specsavers. l will most definitely be back and will bring my children here too.” C.M. Belfast
6. “The Petticrews are so fortunate to have two wonderful employees in Ann and Ali. You are so warm and welcoming. Very helpful too.” M.P. Holywood
7. “Thank you Andrew for taking the time to see me and for explaining everything very well.” J.J. Newtownabbey

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/08/opticians-fail-the-which-eye-test-263296/

It’s all over the optical press that Which Magazine has written a report which is pretty damning of the quality of the eye care supplied by optometrists in the UK. This report will be no surprise to anyone who has had a look at our website before.

The amazing part of it is that patients think that the quality of their eye examination will be the same wherever they go. A professional qualification doesn’t necessarily mean you care. I have had poor advice from GPs, Solicitors, Accountants and Surveyors. The problem is that you have no way of knowing whether you’re being well looked after or not.

You simply have to find someone you trust and stick with them like glue. Its good if there can be a number of your friends or family going to the same optometrist because there is safety in numbers. If we annoy one of you, you might all leave!

At our practice we have a full money back guarantee on everything we do including the professional services. If you come away from us and it is not simply the most comprehensive eye examination you have ever had from an optometrist, you don’t need to pay a penny. We see over 150 new patients every year and it hasn’t happened yet!

I had a patient in recently to have their eyes examined, who is a university lecturer in a healthcare subject. She was clutching a cutting from a popular national newspaper, which was waxing lyrical about the benefits of a new surgical treatment which espouses to remove the need for reading glasses.

Straight away, I asked her which clinic the article was written by and she looked blankly at me. I showed her the bottom of the article, where there is always a ‘for more information’ web/e-mail address. Thinking about it, not only are all of these articles written by people flogging stuff, I can’t remember the last time I saw an article which was written by a journalist let alone a science or health correspondent. These articles that are quite clearly a press release submitted by a private company and are nothing better than an advert, but are extremely cleverly veiled as quality journalism.

We tend to subconsciously form the opinion that the particular newspaper or form of media we have chosen as being a suitable lens through which we view our world, is on our side. We have usually chosen it because its editorial policies stroke our own personal prejudices and consequently we buy into it a bit (myself included). We end up thinking that it is working hard to uncover conspiracies and cut through spin – maybe this is indeed the case when there’s no money in it. Unfortunately, the funding model is such that they exist through advertising revenues and therefore to some degree or another, are bound to provide the best value for money. When dealing with magazines previously, I have been told that an article written by me will not get the publication unless I also buy advertising. Or to turn that around, if I buy the advertising I will get the column inches.

The problem is simply that private medicine is a bit different. Healthcare has big stakes, big money, big words and small print. Equally, people who have a health problem and or even a sight-threating one, in my opinion are some of the most vulnerable consumers around. They will do anything to fix their problem and that stops them approaching these products and services with their usual level of caution.

When we were growing up around the dinner table, often discussing some current news item as a family, my late mother would have simply not accepted a statistic quoted by someone without a reference. If the reference supplied was deemed to be insufficient, a reply would be issued that ‘paper doesn’t refuse ink.’ It is entirely possible to write a piece including absolutely nothing but the truth yet, purely by omission, let the reader carry themselves down a path which is most advantageous to the writers cause.

When I was in England recently I did a bit of mystery shopping and went to five different opticians to have five eye examinations. I chose a selection of opticians from both the independent and the multiple sector as well as from both ends of the market.

I made a point of being completely open and honest about absolutely everything apart from my occupation and I said that I had never had an eye test before. I was open about the various problems I am noticing with my eyes, as well as family history and general medical details.

As it happens, I have really very unusual eyes that would give any optometrist a run for their money. I have six different aspects of my eye health which are genuinely of note to any optometrist. I have one eyelid that sits lower than the other, I have an eye muscle problem which means I get double vision when I am tired, I have a problem with the oil glands in my eyelids, I have a significant amount of astigmatism, I have one pupil bigger than the other and I have high eye pressure. My optic nerves are a bit ropey looking too!

My conclusions were that we can be very proud of what we do at Petticrew Optometrists and here are five reasons why:

1. History and symptoms. Believe it or not, approximately 70% of eye conditions can be diagnosed purely through asking the right questions and listening carefully to the answers. Three of my six would have been detected purely through asking me the right questions. I have a list of 11 questions which I ask every single patient and these often lead on to more in-depth questions. This is much much better.

2. Testing of vision. The equipment and techniques we use to check both distance and reading vision is far superior to any used on my eyes during my little project.

3. Testing of prescription. The way I find an optical prescription is better than all five in three different ways. I use a number of more accurate techniques to determine the magnitude of astigmatism an eye has. I use more accurate techniques to find out the orientation of astigmatism. I use a special technique call binocular balancing to get a more natural, relaxed and ultimately more accurate prescription.

4. Eye health examination. The techniques I use to examine the health of the eye and structures around the eye are significantly better than all five.

5. Equipment used. The range equipment we use wider than any of the five. Also the techniques we use to get the best result from the equipment we use are better than all five.

One optometrist wanted to refer me with regard to my eye pressure which suddenly put me in a very awkward position as I didn’t exactly want her to write to my GP!

I am not an arrogant man and I make plenty of mistakes but I feel that the level of care our patients get at Petticrew Optometrists is king to that which I received at every single one of these opticians.

Equally, if I went to another one, I might suddenly find it a deeply humbling experience because they do it a whole lot better than I do!