Optician Career Guide and Counseling

Question: How does an optician make lenses for eye glasses? Does anyone have a good website where I can read about how an optician make lenses for eye glasses? From adding grade to it, coatings, transitions, and others.

Answer: I don't know of any sites that show the whole process, but if you are really interested, and live in a fairly large city, there may be an optical lab nearby that would be pleased to give you a tour of the facility. One point though, the opticians aren't the ones who grind the lenses and do the coatings, ect...those are optical technicians. Many opticians have a small in store lab just for cutting the semi finished lenses into the frames, and doing tints...but the actual grinding of the curvatures into the blanks to create the prescription and doing the anti reflection coatings are left to the big labs.

Question: Can a optician find out my exact prescription? I am planning to go to an opticians for an eye exam.I love wearing spectacles esp. the ones for short sight.Things look small and cool.I want to know if the optician can really find out that my eye sight is not bad at all for glasses.How can I pretend I cannot read the chart and act as I have real bad eyes and get a pair of spectacles.Can he find out that I am just accomodating?Pls give ur valuable suggestions.

Answer: You shouldn't wear RX glasses just b/c they look cute. It can ruin your vision and give you horrible headaches. What you should do instead is just wear glasses made from clear glass (no RX). I also love the look of glasses and have perfect eyesight. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with getting glasses...finally my dad got me a glass pair. Anyway, that's what you should do. But really heed my advice on not wearing the prescription and trying to fooling the doctor. It could really mess with your eyesight and give you headaches and cause you diziness. Besides, the glass kind are a lot cheaper and less of a hassle.

Question: How do you become a liscenced optician? What kind of salary would you expect in that field? I would like to go to optometry school but I don't think I can afford it. I don't want to be paying off loans for the rest of my life. Is being an optician a good alternative?? If anyone could tell me about the field I would appreciate it.

Answer: forget about this field buddy, i got my license and i'm only make 25000 a year. i wish i never went into this field. a cop make more than me. you'll get a lot of idiot customers that lies about them breaking their glasses and asking you to warranty them. it's just...argh nerve racking i think my life shorten because of this job.

Question: How much can I make as a certified Optician? I'm considering enrolling in a program to become a certified optician in the Los Angeles area. Does anybody know the starting salary range for this career? Thanks!

Answer: Not all that much, I would say somewhere in the vicinity of $28,000-30,000/ yr.

Question: Why does my optician prescribe a lower strength lens than the machine say I need? Have a cataract in my right eye and the machine said - 9 optician would only prescribe -4 as he said anything else would cause double vision because my left is is almost perfect for distance and just needs a +3.75 for close - why can't my bad eye be corrected to -9 confused!

Answer: Sometimes, If the prescription is too different between the two eyes, the eyes cannot tolerate it, especially if the change is sudden. it affects your binocular vision and muscle balance and so will result in double vision. This is decided by the optician assessing how your muscles are working. Its possible that in your case, your eyes muscles cannot tolerate the full prescription, and so a compromise has to be given to prevent double vision. With your sort of trouble, it might be wise for you to consider having a cataract operation, this will correct your prescription and get rid of the blur in that eye too, and it will balance the two eyes once more

Question: What happens if an optician tells you that the funel in the eye is damage? About three months ago, I was playing with friends, suddenly, one of them mistakenly thrown a stick that went straight to my eyeball, it was painful, I was rushed to an optician for treatment, who told me that the funel in my eye ball has damage. What should I do? I am 15.

Answer: Go to a funel repairman. Sorry, couldn't resist that. But really I have no idea what a funel is.

Question: What course would i need to take in order to become an optician? At the moment i'm studying english at university.. but if i wanted to become an optician, what would i have to do?

Answer: Apply for and be accepted to an optometrical program. Here's a detailed listing: http://www.ehow.com/how_12833_become-opt…

Question: Can I ask an optician to alter the arms on my glasses? I have bought them on-line and they are fab except I just need the arms altering slightly. Would it be a bit cheeky to ask another optician to alter them?

Answer: I have often popped into any old opticians to get my frames tightened or whatever, and never been asked if I bought them there. They don't blink. Just ask.

Question: When getting contacts does the optician have to give you a prescription for the best possible vision? Or can I ask for a prescription that is a little less than 20/20 so I don't have to strain my eyes. I'd rather it not be too strong a prescription but will the optician allow that?

Answer: They're certainly able to. In fact, good opticians generally give young people a slightly lower prescription that their best possible prescription - because, as you said, there can be some straining that leads to headaches, etc. It won't hurt you at all to use a lesser prescription (as long as you aren't a child), so if the first person refuses after you explain yourself, somebody else will. Edit: In response to the below answer, having a prescription that is as strong as one can do (while one is straining) can cause headaches, especially in young people. Also, the poster is correct, an optician doesn't write prescriptions. However, he is wrong in saying that only optometrists can - any MD can write an eye prescription, though it would probably be unethical for anybody but an ophthalmologist to do so.

Question: Optician has advised to wear glassess all the time? I had recently been to an eye test and it was discovered I had myopia of the order of L -2.75 R -3.0, with very minute astigmatism. The optician has advised me to wear spectacles all the time. Do I really have to wear them all the time ot just during TV/driving? I dont get any headaches without them but just everything appears blur.Please advise. Ananya, I dont get Migranes. Just feel blur

Answer: Wear the glasses or get contacts. It's far better to see clearly, than suffer the slight inconvenience of wearing glasses.