How I transformed my eyecare practice into a thriving, multi-specialty medspa
Aesthetics, Optoemtry, Wellness, Dry Eye - This is the story of how I create a multi-specialty practice.
From a 1960s phoropter to a multi-specialty luxury medical spa.
This is the real story of how my practice transformed.
When I first bought my optometry practice, I purchased it from a wonderful OD who had run it for nearly 50 years. He had built his entire practice on kindness, charm, and incredible bedside manner.
But he never reinvested in the business.
Not once.
When I walked in, it felt like a museum.
The phoropter still had a +cylinder system from the 1960s. No OCT. No Optomap. No modern diagnostic tools. Just old-school eye care powered by personality.
He left behind patients, but not a business built for the future.
When I took over, my vision was very different.
We went from traditional to modern almost overnight. I invested in upgraded diagnostics like Optomap, OCT, and autorefractors, redesigned the space, elevated the patient experience, and repositioned the practice toward higher-end medical and specialty care.
For many patients, it felt like they had jumped 60 years forward in time.
And then something interesting happened.
Within a few years, I realized my deepest passion wasn’t just general eye care. It was dry eye disease.
On the surface, it’s often treated like a minor complaint. But for my patients, it was chronic, disruptive, and exhausting. I dove deep into education, brought in RF, LLLT, and eventually IPL, and started seeing what long-term relief actually looked like.
And here’s the part most people don’t talk about…
When you grow an optometry business, you don’t just learn more about eyes.
You learn how to build new specialties, how different service lines operate, how patient psychology shifts, how to structure consults, how to train teams, how to market premium care, and how to make the numbers actually work.
That skill set transfers.
Once you understand how to successfully launch and scale one specialty, you can expand into others. That’s how my practice naturally evolved into aesthetics, wellness, and regenerative care. Not because I chased trends, but because I understood how to build systems that support new verticals.
Health and beauty were intersecting in a very real way.
That insight is what led to the creation of my full-scale medical spa focused on regenerative aesthetics, wellness, and biohacking, alongside advanced eye care and dry eye specialty treatment.
Today, we are a true multi-specialty practice.
Patients come in for:
• Customized eye care with extended consults
• Advanced dry eye treatment
• Regenerative aesthetic services
• Wellness and body optimization
All under one roof, with optometrists, skilled nurses, and licensed estheticians working together.
Because the same person who wants weight loss often also needs an eye exam.
And the same patient who wants glowing skin may be silently struggling with dry eye.
From “Dr. Michael Gettis Optometry”
to EyeCare & Aesthetics Optometry + Total Body Aesthetics
This evolution wasn’t accidental. It was strategic, patient-centered, and built for the future of healthcare.
And it’s also why I built a workshop to walk other practice owners through this exact expansion process step by step, without expensive mistakes, random guessing, or learning everything the hard way.
More on that soon. ✨
