Should a health care practitioner be able to tell if I was wearing contact lenses?

Question

if she/he was checking my eyes with a hand-held light and/or the machine that I rest my chin on

I'm asking because I was asked to go for a special
eye exam and was told by the receptionist it didn't matter whether I was wearing my contacts or glasses. I wore my contacts and one of the two practioners had me look into a machine while he took 200 photos of my eyes.
When his colleague went to put drops in my eyes I asked if I should take out my lenses and he got all freaked out because he said the photos would be no good with my lenses in and that I still had to pay the extra $100 for the test but they would have to reschedule another one for another $100.
I figured if the machine is that good and they supposedly knew what they were doing they would
1. ask about my lenses
2. be able to tell if I had them in
Anyhow I didn't pay and didn't reschedule because it seems like a cash grab to me.
BTW I've been wearing contacts for 30 years with no problems.

Answer 1

yes, it's not hard to tell someone is wearing contacts if you look closely enough at their eyes, so if a doctor is professionaly examining your eyes they'll definitely see them. Why do you ask?

Answer 2

I would think that for an expensive test, where the presence of contact lenses will mess it up, the first question out of the guy's mouth before starting would be "are you wearing contact lenses?". Even if they sent a note telling you not to wear them, I think he still should have made it a point to ask every time; it only takes a moment and would save a lot of wasted time/money.

Answer 3

they should have told you to take your contact lenses out before any tests were done. tests are not accurate unless you do and yes they should have been able to tell first off.