§ 59-588. Practice by unauthorized person - Impersonating optometrist - Evidence of violations - Penalties - Students and instructors.

A.  No person shall practice optometry in this state or make any tests or measurements of the human eye for diagnostic purposes unless said person has been issued a certificate pursuant to the provisions of Section 584 of this title or is a physician or surgeon authorized to practice medicine in this state.  No person shall impersonate a registered optometrist.  No person shall buy, sell or obtain in any manner a certificate of registration or exemption issued to another.  Practicing or offering to practice optometry, or the public representation of being qualified to practice optometry, by any person not authorized to practice optometry shall be sufficient evidence of the violation of the provisions of Sections 581 through 604 of this title.  No optometrist shall aid or abet any person not authorized to practice optometry in this state to practice optometry.  Any person who violates any of the provisions of Sections 581 through 604 of this title shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction for each offense, shall be punished by a fine of not less than Fifty Dollars ($50.00), nor more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), or imprisonment in the county jail not less than thirty (30) days, nor more than ninety (90) days, or by both said fine and imprisonment.

B.  Nothing in the provisions of Sections 581 through 604 of this title shall prohibit the performance of routine visual screening by a person not licensed to practice optometry in this state.  Nothing in this section shall prohibit an optometry student officially enrolled in a college of optometry which is approved by the State Regents for Higher Education from performing educational functions within the institution or prohibit an instructor in such optometry college from practicing optometry so long as such practitioner is licensed in any state and his practice is limited to instruction of optometry students in an accredited Oklahoma college of optometry or state or federal hospital which is utilized as a teaching institution for students of optometry, provided such instructor has been issued a temporary license by the Oklahoma Board of Examiners in Optometry.

Amended by Laws 1983, c. 14, § 2, emerg. eff. March 25, 1983; Laws 1985, c. 72, § 2, emerg. eff. May 16, 1985.