What is an Orthoptist and what does an Orthoptist do?
Orthoptics is an allied health profession concerned with disorders of vision and eye movements. Orthoptists are university trained clinicians who diagnose and provide non surgical management of disorders of eye movements and associated vision defects. Non surgical management includes muscle exercise regimes, use of prisms and lenses and occlusion therapy. The aim of orthoptic treatment is to relieve symptoms and enhance vision performance. Orthoptists also perform highly specialised tests of vision function to assist in diagnosis and management of eye disease, such as glaucoma, and eye diseases associated with general diseases including diabetes. Orthoptic assessment of vision can also assist in the diagnosis of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Orthoptists assess functional vision and provide vision rehabilitation assisting persons with vision impairment make the best use of remaining vision to maintain independent function. They assess vision loss associated with stro
