South Dakota § 36-7-1 - Optometry--Scope of practice.

§ 36-7-1. Optometry--Scope of practice.

The practice of optometry is declared to be a profession and is defined as:

(1)    The examination of the human eye and its appendages;

(2)    The employment of any means for the measurement of the powers of visions, or any visual, muscular, neurological, interpretative, or anatomical anomaly of the visual process;

(3)    The prescribing or employment of lenses, prisms, frames, mountings, and visual training procedures;

(4)    The prescribing or administration, except by injection unless otherwise permitted by this chapter, of any pharmaceutical agent rational to the diagnosis and treatment of the human eye and its appendages;

(5)    The employment of any means or method for the correction, remedy, or relief of any insufficiency or abnormal condition of the visual process of the human eye and its appendages, provided the term "any means or method" does not include surgeries, unless otherwise permitted by this chapter;

(6)    The removal of a superficial foreign body from the eye;

(7)    The prescribing of contact lenses, except by a physician licensed under chapter 36-4;

(8)    The use of intense pulsed light for the treatment of dry eye disease; and

(9)    Subject to the requirements set forth in § 36-7-1.4:

(a)    The intradermal injection of a paralytic agent;

(b)    The intralesional injection of a steroid to treat a chalazion;

(c)    The use of a local anesthetic in conjunction with the primary removal of a pedunculated skin tag;

(d)    The performance of a selective laser trabeculoplasty; and

(e)    The performance of a posterior capsulotomy using an yttrium aluminum garnet laser.

Any procedure referenced in this section, when performed by a licensed optometrist, in accordance with this chapter, does not constitute the practice of medicine, for purposes of chapter 36-4.

Source: SDC 1939, § 27.0701; SL 1941, ch 125, § 1; SL 1951, ch 131, § 1; SL 1976, ch 232; SL 1979, ch 253, § 1; SL 1986, ch 306, § 7; SL 1991, ch 303, § 1; SL 1994, ch 296, § 1; SL 2003, ch 201, § 1; SL 2024, ch 155, § 1.