Abnormal, harmful, or undesirable effect on an organism that causes anatomical or functional damage, irreversible physical changes, or increases the susceptibility to other biological, chemical, or environmental stresses.
Optometrists can prescribe glasses, contact lenses, eye exercises, vision aids and therapy, and (in some states) oral and topical medications to treat certain eye diseases. Ophthalmologists are doctors of the eye. They have graduated from medical school and are licensed to practice medicine, so their credentials are either doctor of medicine (MD) or doctor of osteopathy (DO).
This means that optometrists, as primary health care providers, are the âeye-doctorâ that the majority of people seek care from first. Optometry History. Since ancient times, people have used quartz and other crystalline rocks as lenses by placing them directly upon the object that they needed to see. The earliest known painting of a person actually wearing glasses is a portrait of Ugo di Provanza, a cardinal who died in 1262.