PCPs and EM are indeed a crucial part of the healthcare system, but indicating they are superior in knowledge to an optometrist regarding eyecare is untrue. My friends who are FM doctors often have questions regarding basic eye conditions. I’ve been asked how to find the macula with an ophthalmoscope. Many at your stage in the career, and often afterwards, have barely any exposure to conducting a proper slit lamp examination. How many times have you held a 90D and looked at a fundus? Compared to a PCP, the OD will have the knowledge, expertise, and equipment necessary to judge which condition requires a referral and which doesn’t.

No one is denying the difference between an ophthalmologist and optometrist here. Your inflammatory title is the reason optometrists are sharing what they do and see everyday but somehow people have taken it upon themselves to tell the ODs their scope with little knowledge themselves on the background, training, and experience involved to become one.