Final answer:
An optometrist is a professional tasked with examining, diagnosing, and providing non-surgical treatment for vision disorders, prescribing corrective lenses, and detecting eye diseases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The professional described in the question is an optometrist, who is a healthcare provider with a Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree who diagnoses, manages, and treats conditions and diseases of the human eye and visual system. Optometrists provide comprehensive vision care, which includes eye examinations to determine the presence of vision disorders, the need for glasses or contact lenses, and the detection of eye diseases. They do not perform surgery but may prescribe therapeutic medication and perform certain in-office procedures. The description does not match an ophthalmologist, who is a medical doctor capable of performing eye surgeries, an optician, who mainly fits and dispenses corrective lenses, or an orthoptist, who is specialized in managing strabismus and other eye movement disorders often in collaboration with ophthalmologists.
An eye exam is crucial for detecting vision problems like myopia (nearsightedness) where a person sees near objects clearly while distant objects appear blurry, and hyperopia (farsightedness) where far objects are clear but close ones are not. Both conditions can be corrected with the appropriate lenses; myopia with a concave lens and hyperopia with a convex lens. Prescriptions for vision correction are given in diopters, a measurement that indicates the level of correction required to normalize vision.