Dr. Kevin W. Wells, OD, FAAO

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Get to know Optometrist Dr. Kevin W. Wells, who serves patients in Florida.

Providing excellent eye care to help patients see their best, look their best, and feel their best, Dr. Wells is the CEO of Wells Vision and Laser Eye Center.

With offices in Destin and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, Wells Vision and Laser Eye Center provides a multitude of state-of-the-art eye care services to patients. Dr. Wells and his staff perform eye exams, treat eye injuries and infections, treat and manage eye disease, dry eye, and do fittings and assessments of soft, hard, and scleral contact lenses. LASIK eye surgery is performed in the Destin location by renowned surgeon Dr. Bret Fisher. 

Graduating from East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma in 1992, Dr. Wells was President and Vice-President of the Student Senate and was involved in many campus organizations. Upon graduating, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. After a year and a half of active duty army service, he was accepted into the Northeastern State University College of Optometry. 

After graduating with his Doctor of Optometry degree in 1998, Dr. Wells was in the first class of Optometric Laser Vision Correction Surgeons to be certified by the Oklahoma Board of Examiners in Optometry.

Dr. Wells left a thriving practice in southern Oklahoma where he pioneered laser eye surgery to help glaucoma patients better control their eye pressure without drops (currently, Florida law does not allow optometrists to perform laser eye surgery).

Dedicated to improving and maintaining the quality of vision, Dr. Wells is a Diplomate of the American Board of Optometry (ABO) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO). Currently, Dr. Wells is the only optometrist on the Emerald Coast to have both distinctions.

Among his other professional affiliations include the American Optometric Association, the Florida Optometric Association, and the West Florida Optometric Association.

Optometry is a health care profession that involves examining the eyes and applicable visual systems for defects or abnormalities, as well as diagnosing and managing eye disease. Optometrists are healthcare professionals who provide primary eye care through comprehensive eye examinations to detect and treat various visual abnormalities and eye diseases. Being a regulated profession, an optometrist’s scope of practice may differ depending on the location. Thus, disorders or diseases detected outside the treatment scope of optometry (i.e. those requiring certain surgical interventions) are referred out to relevant medical professionals for proper care, more commonly to ophthalmologists who are physicians that specialize in the tertiary medical and surgical care of the eye. Optometrists also work closely together with primary care physicians, endocrinologists, neurologists, and other healthcare professionals to deliver quality and efficient eye and overall healthcare to the general public.

Among Dr. Wells’ numerous accolades include Young Optometrist of the Year for the State of Oklahoma (2006), and Best of The Emerald Coast  by Emerald Coast Magazine (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2022). He was published in the Journal of the American Optometric Association, Vol. 82, No. 8.

Outside of the office, he enjoys spending time with his two daughters, Gabrielle and Alexandra. He is an avid golfer, CrossFit fanatic (competing in CrossFit and Powerlifting events), and instrument-rated pilot. 

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