When I got my first pair of glasses in Japan, I was utterly shocked to be escorted upstairs for a FREE eye examination that determined my prescription thus thus allowing me to walk out of the shop with my new glasses perched on my nose the same day.
Was the exam conducted by a "fully-trained, highly-skilled, professional eye doctor"? Obviously not. But you obviously don't need to be one to operate one of those lens-shifting gizmos. It's just a matter of a few weeks training (if that).
And, I am sure that the training was sufficient to teach the operator to recognize the symptoms of any eye problems requiring actual medical care.
Looks to me that the eye doctors in the states have a good racket going -- and want to keep it.
If that worked for you, that's great. However, eye exams run solely by people given a six weeks training course will not work for everyone and in fact, it could mean future loss of vision for some.
Both my optometrist and my opthalmologist have techs trained to run the exams. Each time I have sailed through all those machine exams with no problems, and the techs hand over the machine based new prescription information.
On some recent eye exams, after the machine tests, a routine eye exam, and detailed refraction assessment, both my Optometrist and then my Opthalmologist found rather alarming changes in my eyes which the machines had failed to pick up.
Each time the closing speech had just begun "we're done, all's well, you can pick up your prescription on the way out..." routine when I then heard "Uh oh, hang on a second, hmmmm, just a minute, please..."
The prescription results from the machine are intended to just be a beginning point with the final refraction measurements performed by the Optometrist or Opthalmologist. In my case, the machine recommended refractions are usually far off from my final and Optometrist's recommended prescription.
It is time consuming to sit in that chair with someone peering into your eyes saying "okay, is this better or how about this?"
Trained techs assist in the eye exam by lining up your chin and forehead, getting your eyes centered and pushing buttons on a machine but they are not qualified to perform eye exams, give accurate prescriptions nor give medical diagnoses.
I trust my Optometrist solely because he has insisted that I go to an Opthalmologist (and he did not refer me to one, I had one already) after he examined my eyes and found some alarming changes.
Maybe I am lucky to have found a very competent Optometrist. The Optometrist's exam findings have been confirmed by the Opthamologist each time. By the way, neither know each other personally or professionally.
What's really laughable is that all optometrists wear glasses and all laser surgeons are lens-free; what's a salesman to do?