In focus: Is there a doctor in the house?

In the US, Canada and now more recently in Australia our profession is gaining a new identity.

In these countries, optometrists are increasingly calling themselves doctors of optometry and while the term can be misleading no one is saying an optometrist is a physician.

Furthermore, it appears that this allows the public in these countries to better understand the optometrist’s role in ocular health while minimising the retail aspect of optometry involving spectacle sales.

Now, is this a good or a bad thing? Understandably to many of us in the profession, this at first glance appears to be quite unusual. However, in the UK both dentists and veterinarians do indeed use the title ‘Dr’ (although they often, not unlike optometrists, only hold a bachelor’s degrees). It could be said that these professions have been successful in not being identified or mistaken by the public as physicians.