2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY - Examining Boards and Professional Colleges (§§ 1 — 6033) › Chapter 27 - Board of Examiners of Optometrists (§§ 521-529 — 544y) › § 544x - Illegal practice of optometry or certified optometry: penal sanctions

The following practices, acts or omissions shall constitute the illegal practice of optometry or certified optometry:
(1) To advertise, perform or attempt to perform the visual refraction procedure on the human eye, unless he or she is an optometrist duly-authorized to practice in Puerto Rico.
(2) To advertise a service of adapting or attempting to adapt contact lenses to the human eye without being an optometrist duly-authorized to practice in Puerto Rico.
(3) To advertise, sell, supply, or furnish or attempt to do so, glasses with correction, or contact lenses, including contact lenses without visual correction, by mail or any other means of delivery, without a duly issued prescription.
(4) To advertise, sell, furnish or supply glasses or contact lenses with correction, including contact lenses without visual correction, or attempt to do so, unless an optometrist or certified optometrist has examined the eye, and determined the measurements with regard to the cornea that said contact lenses should have, without having exercised his or her professional judgment in that respect.
(5) To advertise, or notify the acceptance of requests or orders by telephone or any other means of communication to prepare corrective eyeglasses or contact lenses, with or without correction, or to prepare duplicates of eyeglasses, contact lenses or pre-prepared eyeglasses without a duly-issued prescription.
(6) To use the title “Doctor of Optometry”, or the initials D.O. alone, accompanied by, in combination with or associated to other terms, or to give the false impression of being an optometrist duly-authorized to practice in Puerto Rico without being so.
(7) To advertise, offer, or provide treatment by ocular muscle exercises or visual or orthoptic therapy, without being an optometrist who is duly authorized to practice in Puerto Rico.
(8) To adapt artificial or prosthetic eyes without being an optometrist who is duly authorized to practice in Puerto Rico.
(9) To fail to personally sign prescriptions whether in print, printed stamps, rubber stamps or other official mechanism.
(10) To sign prescriptions for dispatching or preparing glasses, contact lenses, or any other type of visual correction, without first having personally examined the eyes of the person for whom said prescription is issued.
(11) To crassly and irresponsibly fail to complete and update the record of any patient.
(12) To advertise him/herself [as] an optometrist [or] as a specialized optometrist certified to partially or totally perform special functions without being in fact duly certified by the Board, as provided in its regulations.
(13) To submit false or fraudulent documents to the Board in order to obtain a license and/or a certificate as an optometrist or certified optometrist.
(14) To misrepresent him/herself as a person who is duly licensed as an optometrist, or certified optometrist in Puerto Rico.
(15) To fraudulently buy, sell, use, or fraudulently obtain a registration number, diploma, license, or certificate as an optometrist or certified optometrist.
(16) To practice as an optometrist or certified optometrist when the license has been temporarily or permanently revoked.
(17) To publish, show, make known or allow the diffusion in any written, radial, or televised medium any advertisement related to eye examinations, sale of focused or unfocused lenses, ophthalmic frames, eyeglasses or contact lenses, that is partially or wholly false, confusing or deceitful, or that creates false expectations in the consumer.
(18) To allow the use of his or her name, title, license number, number of the certificate or permit granted exclusively to a person or entity where he or she is not offering his or her professional services.
(19) Every optometrist, or certified optometrist who knowingly acts in contravention of or affects his or her professional judgment based on instructions offered by a person or persons not licensed to practice optometry in Puerto Rico.
(20) Every optometrist or certified optometrist who incites or induces another optometrist or certified optometrist to act contrary to his or her professional judgment based on instructions offered by a person or persons not licensed to practice optometry in Puerto Rico.
(21) To use topical anesthesia or cycloplegic agents for purposes other than for refraction.
Every person who has incurred any of the illegal practices indicated in this section and is convicted shall be guilty of a felony which shall be punished with a fine that shall not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), imprisonment for a fixed term of three (3) years, or both penalties at the discretion of the court. Shall there be aggravating circumstances, the fixed penalty may be increased to a maximum of five (5) years; should there be extenuating circumstances, it may be reduced to a minimum of one (1) year.
The conviction shall entail about the confiscation of the instruments used in the commission of the crime, in favor of the People of Puerto Rico.
History —Aug. 15, 1999, No. 246, § 6.01.