How to Choose the Best Optometrist for your Family

Our eyes are extremely sensitive and delicate. We also rely on our vision more than pretty much any of our senses, even using it to confirm what we’ve detected through hearing, touch, smell or taste. To keep our eyes healthy and functioning properly, regular visits to an optometrist are essential. But with so many eyecare professionals out there, how do we know who to choose?

Here are our tips on how to choose the best optometrist for your family.

Ask for recommendations

One of the easiest ways of coming up with a shortlist of potential family optometrists is to ask around for recommendations. You may have friends, family or even colleagues who use a local family optometrist and will be able to tell you whether they’ve had a good experience with them and would recommend them, or if they would suggest that you avoid them. Asking around can enable you to get the opinions of real people, rather than simply using faceless reviews on the internet. Once you’ve got a shortlist, you can then do some further research to make sure that they are the optometrist for you.

Look at reviews online too

That’s not to say that online reviews aren’t important. There are plenty of online platforms where people can publish their experiences with various healthcare providers, including optometrists, but you should always consider these reviews carefully. No optometrist is going to publish negative reviews about themselves on their own website, and they have ability to make any that patients try to submit ‘disappear’. However, there are plenty of impartial review websites that should give you a more balanced view of the care that an optometrist provides.

Take convenience into account

It can be hard to make time for medical appointments, particularly when they are ‘only’ check-ups. When you aren’t experiencing pain or problems, general preventative appointments can seem a low priority, but in fact, they are a crucial part of your family’s overall health and wellness. Making sure that you choose providers who fit into your busy lifestyle can make it easier to attend these appointments. Choose a provider who is local to your home, your place of work or your kid’s school, and that offers appointments at convenient times, including evenings and weekends if that is what works for you and yours. Parking and/or public transport routes are also things like that you might like to consider.

Make sure that the team have the relevant qualifications and training

Your family is the most important thing to you, so you’ll want to ensure that they are only treated by trained and experienced professionals who can deliver the highest levels of care at every appointment. In addition to checking the specific qualifications of your optometrist and the team around them, it’s also worth considering how long the vision center has been in business, how trusted it is within the community and how committed they are to further the education of their team with ongoing professional development and investment in the latest tools and equipment. Your shortlisted optometrists should be happy to answer these questions for you.

Take a look at the selection on offer

While glasses and contact lenses are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what your optometrist can do for you, if you need to wear them, they will form an important part of your care. As a result, you’ll want to choose an eyecare provider that offers a wide selection of different glasses and lenses. Although you don’t have to get your eyewear from your optometrist, for continuity of care and convenience, it helps if they have what you need.

For more tips on choosing the best optometrist for your family, call Auglaize Family Eye Care at (419) 775-4300 to reach our office in Wapakoneta.