My top 5 reads for an Optometry student

Optometry student Jessica picks out her top books and resources for students starting on the course.

1) Clinical Visual Optics, Bennett and Rabbetts (book)

This book is a really good guide for all the content for lectures, I utilised it heavily to help underpin my knowledge. It was especially useful to help understand the optics of the eye, as well as the theory behind clinical practice, for example in measuring visual acuity.

2) Ocular Anatomy and Histology, Pipe and Rapley (book)

This book is amazing to help understand all the anatomy you need to know to understand the eye. Firstly, the diagrams are so clear and helpful. I would highly recommend using these as a reference to actually draw your own copies. The explanations are also extremely easy to understand.

3) 'A Whistlestop Tour of Myopia', Powell (article)

This article piqued my interest due to the huge importance that myopia has. This article explores some methods that can control myopia pretty well and briefly compares these. A particular subject that I found striking was of how treating myopia might be difficult if one wasn’t financially able.

4) An Introduction to Paediatric Eye Disease and Care (online course on Cybersight)

This was something that appealed to me as it provided a detailed insight into conditions children face and the care required. It also depicted the reality, as well as the science behind it. Also, it was a short course that showcased the importance of treating children earlier to prevent some devastating cases.

5) 'Blue-light-blocking Lenses in Eyeglasses: A Question of Timing', Tosini  (article)

Due to the common association with blue-light being bad for your eyes, I read this journal article to have an idea of the effectiveness blue-light blocking lenses have. This article was very useful in that sense as it explored how effective these lenses really are and provided a fair and factual conclusion.

Jessica

Jessica studies Optometry at ARU in Cambridge. Find out more about Optometry, and other degree courses, at one of our Open Days.