My son and I went to see Dr. Prickett earlier in the week and then again today. I must say my experience has NOT been good, at all. Those patients think she is great, hear me out here.
Our first appointment went semi-normal: polite staff, a bit slow but that's fine. We went through a series of eye tests with the Autorefractor, Fundus Camera and Pentacam. I was surprised that they never asked to check our old spectacles. Then we went to see Dr. Prickett. She seems nice and did the test with the Phoropter. She said my son, who turned 18, has no big change on his eyesight and neither are mine. While I was in the room, my son left to choose spectacle frames. By the time I was done, I went out to join my son to look for a suitable frame. When I found out the prices, I told the staff that I will shop around first. Then I asked for a copy of our RX.
When we got home, I compared the new RX with our old ones, my son's one was from Japan a mere 6 months ago and mine was from a reputable eye-surgery clinic in Singapore 2 years ago. Our RX went up in a VERY strange way. My son's reading went from -1.75 for both eyes to -2.0 and -2.25, while mine went from -0.25 and -0.75 to -1.0 and -1.5. What was even stranger is that I always have astigmatism in my whole life and suddenly the readings from -0.75 and -0.5 from 2 years ago went to -0.25 to none on the left eye. I thought that was REALLY bizarre. So I asked to see Dr. Prickett again.
At the 2nd meeting, I explained my concerns with the numbers being off for my son and me, especially for my missing astigmatism. Dr. Prickett's team did another test with the Autorefractor and then she did a short Phoropter test. I gave her more feedback during the Phoropter test. In the end, she said her measurements were correct although there is slight astigmatism on the left eye which she found NONE before, and she is willing to reduce the numbers a bit for my son if that suits me.
Now, I am pretty baffled but respecting that she is the doctor and not me, so I told her to reduce my son's -2.25 to -2.0 as I am concerned w the potential error. Meanwhile, my numbers stay the same except an added -0.25 on astigmatism w AXIS at 125.
My overall feedback? I don't think we had a good optometrist.
I understand how doctors or any professionals can get defensive when told their assessments are incorrect, as I am a professional myself. But when a patient tells you something is not right, the doctor ought to take additional cautions during any re-tests or should conduct additional tests to validate his/her initial findings. It is known in the industry that Phoropter tests can be VERY subjective and that it takes time for our eyes to refocus during such a test. Common errors in over prescriptions is a known problem in the industry. So by not offering more time during the re-test but instead sped up the process by just a doing a less than 2 min test for each of us indirectly tells me this is NOT what a 'GOOD' doctor should do.
I will go get the spectacles as she prescribed and see how those glasses will turn out. Either the hospital in Singapore that I had my eye tested was completely off about my eyesight, or it is Dr. Prickett's readings that are way off. Stay tuned if you are interested to find out the results. For those who are curious about how these doctors can give the wrong RX, google around. read more