Peter Parker's Spidey-sense was tingling. No, not tingling, throbbing. The pain was in his head, more specifically, behind his right eye and it was a doozy. Throbbing. His normal 20/2 vision was more like a mere 20/15 and he was feeling the need to whip out his old set of specs. When Aunt May caught him staggering around the house in the dark, saying that the light hurt his eyes, she sent him straight to her cousin, the ophthalmologist.

"You don't want to mess around with opticians or optometrists when there's something really wrong, Peter. You need the experts. An ophthalmologist. Remember, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."

Maybe you actually don't need no doctor.

What do singers Ray Charles, Andre Bocelli, Jose Feliciano, and astronaut John Glenn have in common? They all had glaucoma and could've benefited from a good ophthalmologist. Well, in John Glenn's case, he was actually able to save most of his sight thanks to one; which just goes to show, impoverished singers are at a major disadvantage in getting prompt medical care compared to US Senator/NASA astronaut heroes.

Glaucoma is one of the major eye diseases that can cause blindness and only a board certified ophthalmologist can treat it. Take that measly optometrists. Just because you are allowed to use the puffy thing to blow air in people's eyes to diagnose the disease, doesn't mean you can do a darn thing to stop it. That's why ophthalmologists get the big bucks unlike optometrists and piddly opticians.

An unlicensed optician makes about $15 an hour, a licensed one maybe around $35. Optometrists, because they have medical degrees, make around $100,000 a year, give or a take. Ophthalmologists, however, make the big bucks averaging around $300,000—but that number can go much higher. It all depends on how successful the doctor is, how many surgeries are performed, and the location of the practice (an ophthalmologist in Beverly Hills or Manhattan makes a whole lot more than one in Peoria, for instance).

Sure, ophthalmologists can also make you read an eye chart and set you up with a nifty set of specs—but that's not all they can do.

Ophthalmologists can treat corneal abrasions, eviscerate cataracts. Heck, some can even perform actual eye surgery. That's right, you could be wielding big, expensive lasers at people's eyeballs and transplanting corneas to blind people to make them see again. It's a miracle. You can literally be a miracle worker.

Or you could skip Med school and spend your days sitting in a shopping mall kiosk somewhere in middle America as an optician taking prescriptions written by optometrists (who are bona fide doctors, but not specialists, but more like diagnosticians who are stuck saying "Better?" "Worse?" for a living). If you want to end up fitting hard-to-please grannies with glasses all day long and running two-for-one sunglasses specials for a living...the choice is yours.

On the other hand, with great power comes great responsibility, and lots and lots of education. After getting your undergraduate degree along with getting stellar grades (especially in math and science), you'll apply to medical school. After four years there, you'll need a residency in ophthalmology, treating eye diseases such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. 

As an ophthalmologist, you will have a clear understanding of how problems with the rest of the body can affect the eyes, such as vision problems stemming from diabetic issues, thyroid problems, parasites, infections, rare medical conditions, and cancers.

They just may not look this cool...yet. (Source)

After your residency, you can go on to sub-specialize in specific parts of the eye. For instance, maybe you want to get really, really good at understanding the cornea. You can then be the go-to-guy (or gal) for corneal transplants. Or maybe you get whisked off to a lab somewhere and decide to grow your own corneas or create bionic eyes that enable blind people to see again.

If you own your own optical clinic, you have all sorts of things to worry about like overhead, staff, taxes and dealing with insurance companies that may make it impossible to turn a profit. If you don't have a lot of clients (like any other business), you could find yourself going belly-up. Fancy shmancy medical degree and all.

Being a Board Certified Ophthalmologist, however, does make you versatile and valuable. You can pick and choose the kind of job and stress level you want. You can work for yourself or someone else and let them deal with the overhead and insurance headaches. You can work in clinics, hospitals, or private practices. Or you can do research, specializing in rare disorders. The choice is yours. 

If you're going to do surgery, though, you'll need super good hand-eye coordination. If you're particularly good at video games,  this may be a good fit for you. So long as you aren't set on becoming a military sharp shooter.

You'll also have to be a real people-person, as ophthalmologists see patients all day. Besides, having a good bedside manner will keep people calm while you poke/laser their eye-ball.

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