The basic knowledge about optician

Optician, also called eye care specialist, is a type of licensed eye care practitioner who helps people with their vision problems, such as the low vision aids and ophthalmic prosthetics. Opticians are just allowed to make and dispense eyeglasses and sometimes contact lenses. This group is sometimes defined as people who are skilled in the design or fabrication of all types of optical devices. Here we discuss only the eyewear field.

Where opticians get their eye care skills?

Most opticians do not have any background in this field, and they get the job by apprenticeship programs that may last about 2 years or longer. Apprentices receive technical training and also learn office management and sales. Some opticians graduate from the accredited program in medical school and can get a nationally recognized credential.

Available services provided by opticians

Opticians work in a large variety of settings such as the hospitals, eye care centers or optical stores. They help customers select the satisfying glasses, following prescriptions written by ophthalmologists or optometrists. So opticians have to be professional on the eye care. They also recommend the frames, lenses, and lens coatings to patients after considering their prescriptions, habits and face features. The exact degree of vision correction needed by the customer is always given the top priority.

Necessary eye measurements conducted by opticians

Providing professional recommendation for customers requires opticians to keep a good fashion taste and be persuasive. When all of the preparations are done, they start to measure the customer’s eyes, including the distance between the pupils and distance between the ocular surface and the lens. In order to finish these measurements accurately, opticians must use a variety of optical instruments proficiently, ranging from simple measuring devices to complex examination equipment.

About order filling and lens cutting

After making necessary measurements of the customer’s eyes, optician must get the order information correctly. Necessary information of a valid eyewear order usually includes the prescription of the lenses and frame size, lens and frame materials, frame color, and style of the frame. The following step is to provide ophthalmic laboratory technicians with the information they need to grind and insert lenses into a frame. In some cases, the optician can do the grinding and lens insertion work by themselves.

Some extra work opticians can do

Most of the opticians also do the fixing, adjustment and refitting work. They sometimes need to instruct the customers on adapting to, wearing, and caring for eyeglasses. If the eyeglasses have any problems, optician will help. Opticians also do some administrative jobs, including recording customer’s prescriptions and frames, filling orders, checking inventory and supporting sales. All of these will be a great help to the management team of a shop.

Their job prospect

There is an increasing demand for prescription eyeglasses, going with the growth of job demand for optician. It is not an easy job, and an optician is required to get several skills, such as professional eye care, good service and excellent administration. If an optician is really an expert on all of these aspects, he must have a good job prospect. Use our eye care directory to find ophthalmologist near you: http://www.firmoo.com/eyecare-directory/.