I graduated as an optometrist in 1981 and never looked back. That was in Sydney and after a few years there I moved back to Adelaide. In 1981 glasses were still made of glass and multifocals and soft contact lenses were both new things. Mobile phones and computers were not around then.
What a great job : I feel priveliged everyday to not only work in this wonderful field but to see and provide advice to our clients and get to know them over the years. How can time pass so quickly. The photo of my young girls in my consulting room attarcted interest at the time I put it there, and now they are young women and quite a few of my patients ask after them still.
Optometry has changed a lot too. Thanks to research we know more about your eyes, and with technology we can gather more information about your eyes more simply and quickly. The lenses are much better due to improved design specifications. Yet most people’s eyes are fairly simple and so with the trend towards cheaper glasses in some cases, the solutions often are the same now as they were then.