Slim,
What is with the quasi-ad hominem attacks? I have my business website on my profile. This makes me an a-hole and a cocky bastard??
Here's the first thing that popped up on LASIK complications-- these are the ones you claim don't exist:
Endopthalmitis post LASIK
Retinal Detachment Post-LASIK
From the American Academy of Ophthalmology:
Scope of Practice
The Academy, along with many other physician specialty organizations, continues to faces increasing challenges to its scope of practice on both the state and federal levels. To protect patient safety and ensure the highest level of quality eye care, the Academy is engaged in an ongoing battle against non-physicians who do not have the education or training to diagnose eye diseases or perform eye surgery.
As problems emerge in states across the country, the frontline for defending ophthalmology’s scope of practice remains in Oklahoma, where the Academy is on the offensive to reverse a rule recently passed that allows optometrist to perform over 100 surgical procedures with a scalpel.
On the federal level, non-physicians are using various federal agencies in an attempt to expand their scope of practice. Last year, the Academy successfully overcame a threat by optometrists to expand their practice within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Following efforts by the Veterans Eye Treatment Safety Coalition and congressional leaders, the VA rescinded a directive that allowed optometrists to perform laser eye surgery on our nation’s veterans and Surgery by Surgery was reinstated throughout the VA. While this battle was won, the Academy continues to monitor and work with other federal agencies, including the Indian Health Service and the Department of Defense, to ensure the highest level of quality eye care is maintained for every patient.
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Calling yourself the "family doctor" for eyes is misleading. Optometrists are not trained to treat the vast majority of eye diseases. You have been brainwashed by your lobby to think of yourself as "the first line of defense" for eye diseases. Perhaps in the great socialist North it is different, but here, no patient is turned away for lack of a referral. They may at times be triaged to an appropriate specialist, or perhaps even to an optometrist. In the few states where you can perform "minor surgery" you have accomplished this by legislation, not by obtaining further training (i.e. going to medical school) which would qualify you to be a surgeon.
You state that the purpose of this thread would be to answer 2+2ers general
ophthalmic questions. Why not handle just the optometric/refractive ones which you seem more than capable to do? The posters with sudden loss of vision, sudden onset of floaters, and decrease vision in the face of diabetes all need examinations by
Medical Doctors , which would be someone who did 4 years of medical school, 1 year of internship, 3-4 years of residency, and then maybe 1-2 years of fellowship.
Finally, you SHOUT YOUR IGNORANCE with regard to Avastin as it has now changed the entire landscape for proliferative retinopathies. The vast majority of patients show improvement of their vision which has previously been unknown in age related macular degeneration. Additionally, this stuff makes abnormal vessels in diabetics melt away. The fact is, you don't know about it, its very important, and you should probably be content to spin those dials instead of mismanaging serious eye disease.
I submit that you have violated OOT Policies by being an OP in an "ask me " thread where you really aren't an expert, and by flaming me for no good reason. Perhaps you will catch NT in a good mood.