“I have the most wonderful mentor, Rebecca Patton, OD,” says Nettie Hines, OD, of Flowood, Mississippi. Dr. Patton, of Jackson, Mississippi, was Dr. Hines’s childhood optometrist. “She showed me that an eye exam is more than just deciding whether ‘one’ is better than ‘two.’ She showed me how an exam can be used to diagnose systemic diseases,” she says. The wonder of that discovery led Dr. Hines to optometry.
Years later, as Dr. Hines was working on opening her own practice but the construction was taking longer than anticipated, she needed a place to see her new patients. Dr. Patton stepped up again, offering a shared space agreement. “I came in as a scleral lens consultant,” Dr. Hines says, and it was wonderful that she was able to pay back some of the guidance she had received.
“Dr. Patton is the one who taught me how critically important a refraction is. I think she does the best refraction.”
