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Career Details
29-2081.00 - Opticians, Dispensing
29-2081.00 - Opticians, Dispensing
Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.
Key Facts

Bright Outlook
1
Career Details
Green Job
Career Details
Current Employment
75,200
Estimate
Forecasted Employment
93,000
Estimate
Change in Employment
+17,800
Estimate
Change in Employment %
+23.7%
Estimate
Tasks

Tasks
The tasks listed below can be performed to prepare you for a career in this field.
Core
- Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
- Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
- Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
- Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
- Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
- Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general.
- Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
- Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
- Instruct clients in how to wear and care for eyeglasses.
- Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
- Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses.
- Repair damaged frames.
- Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
- Arrange and maintain displays of optical merchandise.
- Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications.
- Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames.
- Supervise the training of student opticians.
- Order and purchase frames and lenses.
Supplemental
- Grind lens edges, or apply coatings to lenses.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Knowledge

Knowledge
The items listed below are organized into sections that contain knowledge useful for pursuing a career in this field. Each section also contains a "Percentage of Importance" statistic that shows how relevant an item is to the occupation.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Tools

Tools
The tools listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Technology

Technology
The technologies listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Certifications

Licensing

Licensing
The licensing information below is organized into sections and is useful for pursuing if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific licensing information is listed for this occupation in the area you have selected.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Related Programs

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