Apply
Program Codes
10295
Employment Percentage
16.33611691
SOC ID
29-2081
SOC Title
Opticians, Dispensing
ONET ID
29-2081.00
ONET Concat ID
29208100
Median Salary
49243.04
EMSI Interest Area Term
Kinesiology, Health and Athletics
Ed Level High School
26.93
Ed Level Certificate
26.92
Ed Level Some College
3.85
Ed Level Associates
42.310001
Ed Level Bachelors
0
Ed Level Masters
0
Ed Level Doctors
0
Typical Ed Level
an Associate degree
Career Description
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.
Core Tasks
  • Evaluate prescriptions in conjunction with clients' vocational and avocational visual requirements.
  • Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
  • Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
  • Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
  • Sell goods such as contact lenses, spectacles, sunglasses, and goods related to eyes, in general.
  • Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
  • Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
  • Show customers how to insert, remove, and care for their contact lenses.
  • Maintain records of customer prescriptions, work orders, and payments.
  • Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
  • Fabricate lenses to meet prescription specifications.
  • Instruct clients in how to wear and care for eyeglasses.
  • Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
  • Assemble eyeglasses by cutting and edging lenses, and fitting the lenses into frames.
  • Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.
  • Order and purchase frames and lenses.
  • Repair damaged frames.
  • Perform administrative duties, such as tracking inventory and sales, submitting patient insurance information, and performing simple bookkeeping.
  • Supervise the training of student opticians.
  • Arrange and maintain displays of optical merchandise.
Start Annual Earnings
30190.97
Top Annual Earnings
82871.55
EMSI Career Title Slug
optician-dispensing