Not everyone is fortunate to know his or her career path at the ripe old age of 17. But when Doug King put on his first pair of eye glasses, looked out the window, and discovered he could see individual leaves on the trees outside, he decided then and there that he wanted to bring the same experience to others.
“I didn’t even know I had a problem,” King recalled. “But when I put them on and could see so clearly, it was a huge moment. It impacted me tremendously.”
Now King and his wife, Kristin, own Family Eye Care, a full-service optometry office in Solvang. Doug King is the doctor of optometry, and Kristin King manages the front office.
King has been in practice for over 10 years, providing services that include eye exams, eyeglasses, and contact lens fittings. He also has expertise in managing and treating glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other eye conditions.
King, who grew up in Goleta, got his training at the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee. He honed his skills as an optometrist in the Navy, having been stationed at the New London Submarine Base Hospital in Groton, Connecticut. After a three-year stint with the military, he opened a private practice a short distance away, in Old Saybrook.
“Going through the Navy was a great experience for me because I had the opportunity to work with other ophthalmologists and optometrists,” he said. “I learned a lot working there. In the military, there’s a diverse population, so you see a lot of different things.”
In addition to his regular practice, King also has served as an adjunct clinical instructor at the New England College of Optometry.
While King and his wife enjoyed their time in Connecticut, they had a hankering to return to the west coast. “I have extended family here, and my wife has family here. We wanted to be close to them,” he said. His grandparents, he noted, had lived in the Valley at one time and he often came up from Goleta to visit them.
“We always wanted to come back to the Santa Barbara area, and when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped at it.”
That opportunity came last year Robert France, O.D., decided he was ready to retire, and King bought his practice. “We actually like the Santa Ynez Valley more than Goleta,” King said. “It’s a little slower-paced, and people tend to know each other. We’re quickly seeing people we recognize around town and saying hello, and we really like that.” He added that the schools have done a great job assimilating the King children—ages 16, 12, and 9—into local schools.
Since starting to practice in the Valley, King has mostly been doing eye exams, but also treating ocular disease. “We see a lot of corneal abrasions, scrapes on the eye,” he noted. “We’re also detecting a lot of glaucoma. Really, there’s a little bit of everything.”
King has added some new equipment to the practice, including an autorefractor, which provides an objective measurement of a patient’s refractive error by measuring how light is changed as it enters his or her eyes, and an retinal scanner that allows him to study the unique patterns of a patient’s retina.
Among the contemporary brands and styles in the Family Eye Care showroom are Cover Girl, Cole Haan, Pro Design, Izod, Lightec, Ellen Tracy, Dana Buchman, Ray-Ban, Tommy Bahama, Ocean Pacific, BCBG Max Azaria, and Jessica McClintock.
King treats patients of all ages, from babies to adults, and eye exams are as much about evaluating eye health as they are about checking vision. “A lot of the practice is education. After an exam I sit down and tell people what’s going on with their eyes and how to achieve the best vision possible,” King said.
INFO: Family Eye Care Optometry Center and Dr. Doug King, O.D. may be reached at 805.688.6612. They are located at 2030 Viborg Road, Ste. They are located at 2030 Viborg Road, Ste.105, Solvang
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.