William L. Yoos
Dr. Yoos grew up on a large family farm and ranch in southwestern Missouri. He graduated from Southern College of Optometry in May of 1992, and worked until March of 1993 with Eddie Bryant, an ophthalmologist in West Memphis, Arkansas. He previously taught high school for six years after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a BS in education. While working with Dr. Bryant, he began work on passing state boards and was licensed in Arkansas, Hawaii, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia. However, he has chosen to practice here in Northwest Arkansas and is the owner and office manager of Dr. Yoos Eye Care & Optical.
In March of 1993, he opened a very successful practice in Bentonville, Arkansas, where he leased office space for five years. During this time, he completed schooling to become an optometric physician, which superseded his TPA certification and allowed him to apply for and receive his DEA license. This greatly helped widen the scope of his comprehensive eye care services.
In December of 1998, he decided to move his practice to Bella Vista, Arkansas and leased office space with another optometrist. During this time, he began exploring the possibility of opening his own clinic. A lot was purchased, construction began, and on November 16 of 2000, the clinic began operation. It is an excellent facility with a great staff that has grown now to ten and a full service optical lab that is continuing to grow each year.
In 2000, Dr. Yoos began working in the clinical trials of a new procedure to reshape the cornea while one is asleep. This is called orthokeratology or Ortho-K for short in this country. Dr. Yoos performed this procedure on himself first and then on his wife with very successful results. Using a special medical contact lens that is custom designed for each patient, the cornea is remolded while the patient sleeps. No correction is then needed during the daytime. Ortho K is FDA approved for myopia control, which means it stops the progression of myopia, or near-sightedness. This is especially crucial for children. He and his wife as well as their two oldest daughters still use Ortho-K and love it. Dr. Yoos has successfully fitted many patients over the last thirteen years, and in 2005, he received a fellowship in orthokeratology; only a few doctors in the world hold this degree. Another new area is the fitting of scleral lenses for patients, which allows many people who were previously struggling with their vision to finally be able to have outstanding vision correction.
As an optometric physician, each year requires many hours of continuing education to stay on the cutting edge. 2014 was the year Dr. Yoos became nationally board certified by the American Board of Optometry, which gives him a Diplomat degree. The Arkansas State Board of Optometry successfully expanded the scope of practice for optometrists here in Arkansas; Dr. Yoos now also has his license for advanced procedures, which includes using a laser for YAGS and SLT’s along with minor surgical procedures done without anesthesia.
Dr. Yoos truly enjoys visiting with all his patients, and works extremely hard in making sure to take care of all of his patients’ eye health needs. He is an avid gardener, loves working with his cattle, enjoys the lake, hunting and fishing, and has a first degree black belt in Taekwondo.