Is it normal in the US to refer to optometrists as "doctors"?
Fun fact - most doctors in the UK do not have any kind of doctoral degree! Just bachelors degrees (they're sort of treated like masters degrees though.)
Some of them are even allowed to prescribe medicine and perform surgical procedures. And just about all of this “naturopathic medicine” is entirely without evidence.
Medical doctors in the UK and other commonwealth countries have traditionally been MBBS.
In Australia, the adoption of the Australian Qualifications Framework and pressure from the US, where people seem to expect 'MD's has lead to most universities shifting to MD programs from MBBS (an AQF level 7 -> AQF level 9).
The bottom line on this is substantively nothing, except a bit less ink being used on business cards, millions of dollars spent on website rebranding by medical schools and endless posturing by faculty for students.
So basically, whether you are a 'Doctor' by post-nominals or a 'Doctor' by recognition of your MBBS, your education has been effectively the same, and the distinction is actually meaningless.
That same Optometrist who taught me that also taught me about diopters (the inverse of the focal length in meters squared) and optics of my negative prescription.
An "optometrist" has a Doctorate in Optometry, which is several years of post-college education and internship. They can write some prescriptions, too, and diagnose, etc.
An "optician" is a person certified to give eye exams. They do not have a graduate degree.
Those are DOs.
You may come across a lot of >40 year old pharmacists that have a Bachelors in the US.
In Australia this is a closed shop, in that the College of Ophthalmology has a very entrance hard exam and effectively regulates the number of new Fellows to maintain scarcity/standards.
But what I'm more interested in - is it common to _call_ an optometrist a doctor in the US? As opposed to an opthalmologist? Or is this just a weirdness in this article?
People, at least here in Indy, don't (generally) say "I'm going to the optometrist" we say "I'm going to the eye doctor" because they are doctors (they've obtained a Doctor of Optometry degree).
Another English dialectical difference I wasn't aware of.
It's just a fancier version of having a friend or family member push on your back until it pops whatever was out of place.
For example, muscle cramps often feel better after a stretch. However, eating a banana is more likely to help by dealing with a common underlying cause.
A fortune-teller could probably give great advice about family relationships, but I'd recommend a counselor or therapist instead. And I'd probably treat the fortune-teller as a scam artist. In the same vein, a chiropractor might relax my back, but that doesn't make them credible.
Fun fact: the inventor of chiropractic was also big believer in the healing power of magnets, and was murdered by his son.
I don't believe everything they say. But when my back feels twisted, I trust them enough to straighten it out. They even did a good job straightening out my whiplash.