Eye Care Professionals

At East Valley Ophthalmology, our medical doctors (MDs) are ophthalmologists.

Ophthalmologists are medical and osteopathic doctors who provide comprehensive eye care, including medical, surgical, and optical care. In the US, this requires a minimum of four years of college, at least four years of medical school, one year of internship in general medicine (usually at a hospital), and three years of residency at an accredited teaching program. Following this, many ophthalmologists complete one or two additional years of training in a fellowship program to specialize in a particular aspect of eye medicine and become an expert in their field. Additionally, yearly Continuing Medical Education (CME) is a mandatory requirement that must be met for the renewal of ophthalmology certificates.

An ophthalmologist can perform all the tests an optometrist can, and in addition, is a fully qualified medical doctor and surgeon. Ophthalmologists undergo extensive and intensive medical and surgical exams to qualify.  Entrance criteria to a training program are highly competitive. Some ophthalmologists receive additional advanced training (fellowship) in specific areas of ophthalmology, such as retina, cornea, glaucoma, laser vision correction, pediatric ophthalmology, uveitis, pathology, or neuro-ophthalmology.

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At East Valley Ophthalmology, our physicians are board-certified.

Board certification means that your ophthalmologist has taken and passed rigorous examinations that cover all aspects of medical and surgical eye care. These examinations are entirely voluntary. An ophthalmologist is not required by law to be “board-certified” for the practice of medicine. The American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) is the main certifying body for ophthalmologists in the United States.

Our optometrists, also known as eye doctors, are healthcare practitioners specializing in the eye and visual system who provide comprehensive eye and vision care, including refraction and dispensing, detection/diagnosis and management of certain eye diseases and disorders, as well as the rehabilitation of visual system conditions. A Doctor of Optometry (OD) attends four years of college and four years of optometry school. An additional one to two years of residency, fellowship, and/or specialty training is required to qualify for certain positions. All optometry colleges in the U.S. currently provide training in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, as well as minimally invasive procedures, such as foreign body removal and meibomian gland expression.

In the U.S., optometrists are defined as physicians under Medicare; however, laws regarding optometry vary by state. Because optometrists are not medical doctors, they are not authorized to perform surgery. They often refer patients to ophthalmologists for conditions that require surgery and assist in managing their care.

Orthoptists are healthcare practitioners who specialize in the management of eye movement and coordination problems, misalignment of the visual axis, convergence and accommodation issues, and conditions such as amblyopia, strabismus, and binocular vision disorders.

Opticians specialize in the fitting and fabrication of ophthalmic lenses, spectacles, contact lenses, low vision aids, and ocular prosthetics. They may also be referred to as an “optical dispenser”, “dispensing optician”, or  “ophthalmic dispenser”. An ophthalmologist or optometrist must supply the prescription for the corrective lenses.

Currently, opticians are not required to be licensed in Arizona.