Dental VS Ophthalmology

   This is not a debate about the relative merits of these two important medical specialties, but rather of the creature comfort afforded by both.
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    DENTAL OFFICE:  You the patient are seated in a fairly comfortable chair.  It has padding, a headrest, a footrest, and armrests. The chair is adjustable to your needs, and someone else adjusts it.  There is a tray that slides in front of you, with various piece of  equipment or implements.  The dentist, dental assistant and technician all lean in to provide their services. Almost all the needed equipment, including x-ray machine, are brought to you as you sit in the chair. Yes, there may be some discomfort and even pain, but it is not because of your position. You remain pretty much passive throughout whatever the procedure is;  the professionals  do all the work.

    OPHTHALMOLOGY OFFICE:   Yes, you the patient are seated in a chair. But don't expect to get comfortable in it. For almost all the testing that follows will require contortion on your part. And compared to dentistry, the majority of patients here are in the elderly age group. The office equipment does not conform to you, but the other way around. Except for the administering of eye drops, the staff has no actual physical contact with you. You are the one who has to lean forward and place your forehead against a brace on the machine while resting your chin on another part of it. The assistant may screw the opening up or down for a better fit, but you are straining your back and neck to accommodate the machine more than the other way around. You may be taken to another room for a field of vision test. Again, you strain to conform to the machine. You're on a chair, no backrest at all this time. Lean forward into the machine and press a button when you see a flash. This has to be a primitive and uncertain method of testing. It;s rather like the early game of Pong,and look how far that technology has developed in the gaming world. But not in medicine. Meanwhile, the technician in charge of the testing plays no active role, just sits, bored as heck, but not physically stretched into an uncomfortable position, as is the patient.
    It is obvious that ophthalmic testing machines have not advanced in keeping with the times. Why shouldn't patients  be able to remain  seated in a chair, and have the equipment conform to their needs. What patient, especially those of a certain age, needs to endure unnecessary headache and back strain caused by having to contort their bodies to fit the machines. But I suppose if someone were to invent such accommodating devices, that would necessitate the purchasing of new office equipment, and that would be the show stopper.