Optometrists?

Question

i need help for my school project. If you could describe a regular day for an optometrist and what some perks the job has.

and what is that machine that blows air in your eye and what's it for?

(: thanks!

Answer 1

An optometrist measures people's eyes for glasses.  'Optometry' means 'measuring eyes'.  An optometrist would spend the day in appointments with people who needed eyeglasses or who wore eyeglasses and needed a periodic exam to see if they needed a change in their prescription.  This might or might not include putting drops in the eyes to relax and dilate the pupils.   Then you have the person look at an eye chart through a gizmo with lenses of different strengths, and tell you which is better, from which you determine their prescription.  There are other tests to see if you're producing enough tears, if your eye surface has been scratched or abraded, or to see any other 'anomalies' about your eyes which might require other attention.

The machine that blows air in your eyes is to test for glaucoma.  Glaucoma is a disease where the pressure inside the eye increases, and the eyeball gets 'harder'.  A calibrated puff of air hits the eyeball and a beam of light focussed at that place on the eyeball is deflected, and in this way you can tell how much the eyeball 'dented' in reaction to the puff of air.  The nice thing about this test is that you don't have to actually touch the eyeball.  Glaucoma is something that happens later in life, after 40.  It's more likely if you have a history of it in your family.  It can cause blindness, but if discovered in time it is very easy to treat.