Not a racket but overpriced IMO. I went to an eye doctor (can’t remember the variety) who asked me what was wrong, printed out a google page for what I said and then wanted $200. I can only assume he would have charged even more if he had had to touch me or use any equipment other than his computer.
Like any doctor, if he actually does his job he could be priceless, otherwise not worth a dime.
Wait, I should be getting regular eye exams? I literally had no idea. I’m 39 and aside from the ones they did in school and the one to get your driver’s license, I’ve only ever had one eye exam in my life (I had a floater, and it turns out there was nothing they can do about it. It’s still there.). I have never been told by my PCP or anyone that I was supposed to be having eye exams!
What other stuff do they check for? How often do I need to go? I have insurance that should cover it so if this is something I’m supposed to be doing, I’ll start doing it.
Optometry isn’t a racket.
DENTISTRY is.
~VOW
One morning when I woke up with a very painful left eye, I skipped calling my optometrist and went straight to an ophthalmologist. He prescribed a tiny bottle of drops that cost around $30 or something like that. Cleared the problem up in a couple of days. I paid that $30 to the pharmacy, the doctor took my insurance for his fee.
I caculated that the eyedrops cost $30,000 per gallon. Walgreens has the racket!
Here in Texas, I’ve been told that a re-examination is required if the current prescription is more than 1 year old.
Not sure if that is any kind of a ‘law’, but I couldn’t get a replacement pair until I acquired a recent (>1 year old) prescription. 
My doctor checks for glaucoma, checks my peripheral vision, keeps track on the size of my cataracts and looks for new ones, there’s some new machine called an “Aberometer” that he uses. They check the health of your optic nerve and your eyeballs and the muscles in your eyes.
There’s a ton of stuff they do that doesn’t involve prescription lenses. But if you could benefit from lenses they do that too (obviously).
I go once a year, same amount as going to the gyno, half as much as going to the dentist.
Thanks for the info. I guess I’ll start going to the eye doctor, then! Who knew?
At least around here, Optometrists are not MDs, they have a Doctor of Optometry (DO) which is a graduate medical degree specifically for optometry. (Like DDS for dentists.)
Ophthalmologists are MDs with an ophthalmology residency.
Already mentioned: diabetes, cataracts, retinal detachment, macular degeneration, pupil response, glaucoma, pressure*, peripheral vision, general condition of the retina, and tracking (muscle function).
*not sure what the pressure indicates.
Also: blind spots (nifty computer game with clicker), depth perception (if you’re driving, you need to know if you’re losing that), scratches on your lens, lens dryness, and brain tumors (seriously, some brain tumors push against the back of the eye as a first symptom).
Cat Whisperer, does your husband keep good care of his car? If so, you can say that it’s less like checking the oil level and more like checking the brake fluid or transmission fluid. You don’t expect to find a change in level or any other problem, but those systems are crucial, so you check anyway.
He may also benefit from hearing that he doesn’t need to get glasses just because the eye guy gives him a prescription. As long as he’s able to manage and doesn’t want to bother, he doesn’t have to bother. Just get the big problems ruled out.
You may or may not want to tell him about looking for brain tumors. Some guys respond to catastrophizing humor and some don’t. You could say that you’ve heard that the back of the eye is where the Mad Scientists put the bar codes on their mutants. And that you just want to be sure he didn’t escape from someone’s lab. Or that you want to make sure they gave you the right model.
And ymmv, but I include dermatologists too…
glasses- The cost of frames and lenses is the part where you get racketed. I don’t mind the exam, it’s the hundreds of dollars for the eyeglasses. I want the MD to perform my eye exam but I want the prescription filled by the discounters.
In New York state I believe it’s 18 months. And for a driver’s license, an eye test must have been administered within the last year.
But besides that, there are stores that sell glasses that offer in-store eye exams for next to nothing. The only people complaining about eye exam prices are those who have never needed them. $50 for an exam and glasses, where do I sign?
Every two years? Even every year. Wow. My prescription (for mild nearsightedness) didn’t change for 50 years (15-65), although I started reading by taking my glasses off. At around 65, I did need start needing reading glasses, but the drugstore ones were fine. Then I started having more and more strabismus (double vision, essentially) and since them I have gone to the ophthalmologist every year and keep getting steeper prisms. As far as I can tell, the online el cheapo optometrists do not do prisms. And they are expensive. One year I went to the place that the ophthalmologist recommended and they charged me about $150 (I reused old frames). The following year I went back to the same place and it had been sold to a chain that wanted over $250. They claimed they didn’t use the same cheap lenses that their predecessor had and they had to replace both (I needed only one new one) because the two would not have been compatible. Finally, they made a special order of the old style for me. It still cost about $150 for just one new lens. Thieves. I haven’t been back but the new one is still plenty dear.
I have a question for those of you who had 20/20 (or thereabouts) eyesight until you got older, and then started to need glasses.
I’m 39. I can still read normally without glasses, but it’s more comfortable to wear low-strength over the counter ($3) reading glasses if I have the reading surface close to my face (like closer than arm’s length.
My question is… how doomed am I? How long until I’ll NEED reading glasses? Is my normal (non-reading) vision likely to go downhill as well, requiring me to wear glasses all the time? Obviously you can’t say for sure but I’m curious what other peoples’ experiences has been, because there is probably a trend…
I realize you’re not asking us to diagnose your eyesight over the Internet, but you’re basically asking us to diagnose your eyesight over the Internet. It could happen tomorrow, it could never happen.
Suck up the cost and go see an optometrist to know for sure.
None of you mentioned the prostate exam. Crap.
Speaking of Zenni - I wish they’d sell non-prescription sunglasses in their frames. 
Wait, spoke too soon, they do!
“I had the prostate exam. It wasn’t too bad, but my doctor went at it like he was going for the last pickle in the jar.”
One of my favourite lines from “Corner Gas.” 
Confused… how is that different than what I wrote? 
I already said I was going to go. I’m just curious what the trend of decline is.
That happened to my brother last year. He had to have surgery and had that eye covered for something like 6-8 weeks afterward. I’d much rather find out about something like that early than to wait too long.