An optometrist is a health care professional licensed to provide care of the eye and vision. This includes examining and diagnosing eye diseases, treating visual conditions, and prescribing vision correction procedures. An optometrist is a doctor of optometry, or O.D. (not to be confused with an ophthalmologist, an M.D. specializing in eye care).
There are 19 accredited optometry schools in the U.S. and Canada that grant the four-year degree of O.D. All applicants must take the Optometry Admission Test (OAT). Admission to optometry school is competitive; in 2007 about one-third of all applicants were accepted.
For more information, see the American Optometric Association website aoa.org.