Has anyone ever heard of an opthalmologist doing VT?

[NCW]

My insurance co wants to send us to an opthalmalogist in town that I've never heard of for VT, rather than to a dev. optometrist. We're trying to decide if we want to give this guy a try, or just bite the bullet and see if they cover even a small portion of the guy "out of network".

Do opthalmologists even do VT?

TIA,
NCW

[Kathy in MD]

My insurance co wants to send us to an opthalmalogist in town that I've never heard of for VT, rather than to a dev. optometrist. We're trying to decide if we want to give this guy a try, or just bite the bullet and see if they cover even a small portion of the guy "out of network".

Do opthalmologists even do VT?

TIA,
NCW

Unfortunately because of turf wars, the opthamologists are reinventing the wheel. My understanding is that they don't have the range of excercises or experience.

I haven't heard about the quality of orthoptics, but would imagine that, as with VT, the individual provider makes a major impact.

[Claire]

Call that opthalmologist's office and ask. It's rare, but I have heard of an occasional opthalmologist who has bought into vision therapy wholeheartedly. Orthoptics offers only a subset of the exercises that a developmental optometrist offers, so I'd be a little more hesitant if that is all the opthalmologist offers. Still, a phone call wouldn't hurt in terms of getting more information.