r/optician

Hey y'all, I've been an apprentice optician for two years and I transferred from one LDO to another recently. I know it's a standard to put anyone under 18 in poly but I've also come across rx's and teens that I cannot due in poly due to limitations. Ive put them in hiindex as it still has resistant properties and a -10 doesn't deserve to be in poly. The new LDO keeps saying I'm breaking the law and is threatening to fire me, last I knew there were no laws, just recommendations and standards. Am I just an idiot

I’ve been working for a half of a year now at LensCrafters as a new licensed optician and dislike how they’re blurring both optician and optometry tech roles. The optometry office inside LensCrafters is making me the first backup whenever their staff cannot make it like yesterday. I was suddenly called in to do more hours to help with pretesting when I’m supposed to work part time as an optician.
Not only that, I’m always treated like crap whenever I work with the main doc and her husband (not a doc or optician). They would both text me whenever I’m off or keep interrupting me while I’m on lunch. Yesterday the main doc was giving me attitude after I was going to hand off the patient to her when she was doing nothing except talking to her husband.
Also at Lenscrafters, they never train you so all you get are criticism like you could’ve done better and etc. I hoped that I’ll like it more, but whenever I have to work as a tech, I’ve never received any gratitude or appreciation.
I might as rather learn how to grind lenses in the lab, but I was never trained how to do that.
Also I had asked my optician coworkers and they said that there’s really not much to have them stop putting you as an optometry tech unless if you’re in management or team lead position.

Can someone please explain to me i have a slight tint on my lenses because insurance says i have to have that for my second pair. The store refuses to put AR coating on because they said it will craze the lenses. Is this true? Nothing i find on Google says this. What's the deal??

Hello! I have been chronically ill for the past 11+ years, recently it has progressed and I’m more disabled than before. I use a walker and a cane (Doing everything I can with PT to avoid a wheelchair).

My previous job has offered to give me some re-education credits to go back to school. So, I was looking into the Optician field.

So, I just want to know the reality of how it’s like working as an optician. Is it a physically demanding job? Is it a lot of standing? Is there mandatory overtime? Are employers okay with hiring disabled individuals willing to work? Etc.

Thank you so much for your help!

I’m just starting to take an optician program and I noticed basic math and algebra are one of the classes (I’m awful at math) I’m not to concerned about basic math I figured I’d have to use it but algebra?! I basically failed that in high school is algebra really used in this field often

So, did any other opticians get notified that there is an ongoing shortage across of 1.74 high-index lenses, specifically? My specific practice got notified by our primary lab we use that any lenses in the ultra-high index will be prioritized for prescriptions only when clinically necessary (meaning, +7 to -7).

I mean, I think 1.74 is kind of garbage, anyhow, unless maybe you're -10/+10 and you get the best anti-glare coatings.... but I'm curious what people think.

J’ai passé deux examens à un mois d’intervalle chez des opticiens différents pour des raisons trop longues à expliquer. Quoiqu’il en soit, je veux me faire faire des lunettes pour ordinateur dans un autre centre que ceux où les examens ont été passés. Surprise! L’optométriste n’est pas à l’aise étant donné l’écart entre les deux prescriptions. Il me suggère de retourner chez le dernier pour faire un examen de contrôle. C´est à cet endroit que j’ai fait faire des nouvelles lunettes avec foyer progressif. J’ai de l’inconfort avec mon œil gauche. Surprise! Il ne veut pas faire d’examen de contrôle (sans me faire payer des frais ) il prétend que son examen est bon. Je suis dans une impasse…. je veux des lunettes pour ordinateur, c’est plus confortable que mes progressives, mais je ne sais pas quelle prescription utiliser. Que faire?

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I've been a store manager for years but mostly clothing or beauty. I am overwhelmed with what they expect an SM to be responsible for. And my training wasn't the best... should I just quit or is this really a great opportunity I would be passing up on?

I’ve been an apprentice optician for almost two years so the dispensing theory and frame adjustments and anatomy I know, but the actual math and memorization of the formulas is not clicking for me. I’m using like three different things to study maybe I’m confusing myself. I have always struggled understanding math though. My exam is June 5th😓

I'm gathering, from where I work, that we're essentially shutting down same day surfacing for good based on general computerized metrics.

I get confused because we have individuals days where we easily earn 5-10k surfacing progressive lenses. Nobody is making it clear that we're ending surfacing but I've been in business for 20+ years and I can see replenishment patterns and things like refusal to elucidate details on strategy coming from above. So it feels like we're probably just eliminating that end of our business.

There's no proprietary information happening, fwiw... it's just we implemented some new scheduling stuff and our lab budget dropped by 3/5ths and now they're shutting down replenishment on progressive blanks.

I know that similar things happened at a lot of retail spaces around COVID but I guess I am asking, as a manager, did they inform you before those changes or did they just drop them on you suddenly? And is there anything you'd recommend to alleviate that?

I get worried because I've got lab employees that rely on their job and I'm concerned that I'm going to get a payroll that's like 15 hours for one employee. And we also haven't notified any of our doctors or management beyond, possibly, a corporate level about this.

We actually had corporate guys out here at the end of last year indicating that we were going to grow surfacing. It's just become unstable and I don't know what to tell my people.

I never realized this, just recently saw that prismatic prescription lenses stay the same thickness whether you use a 1.6 or a 1.74 Material. why is that?

I’ve spent years working in eyewear manufacturing, and one thing I keep noticing is how often small details get underestimated early in development.

Sometimes it’s fit and comfort.

Sometimes it’s material behavior.

And sometimes a design looks amazing in a rendering — but once sampling actually begins, completely different problems start showing up.

For example, I’ve seen projects choose injection materials at first because they seemed faster or more cost-effective, but later run into frustrations with durability, adjustment limitations, texture, or simply how the frame feels compared to acetate.

A lot of people also underestimate how much refinement happens during sampling.

Small mold revisions, structural tweaks, hinge adjustments, weight balancing, improving fit — these things often go through multiple rounds before a frame finally feels “right” in hand.

From the outside, most people only see the finished product.

But from the manufacturing side, a huge amount of work happens in those in-between stages.

I’m also genuinely curious about the supplier side of things:

Have you ever felt misled or disappointed by a supplier during development or production?

Could be timelines, material quality, communication, inconsistency between samples and bulk production — anything.

I'd really like to hear both the brand and retail sides of the experience.

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I came across Chadwick Optical mentioned in another thread. Any other independent labs you'd reach for when a commercial lab can't cut it or that you have a preference for?

I’m technically a patient and trying to reverse engineer my way to a local provider that can service my low(er) diopter rx (0.5 BU 0.5 BD). My recent experience trying to establish new care after a relocation didn’t inspire confidence. My current lenses were tested for their prescription and the clinic wasn’t able to verify the 0.5 vertical prism in either lens.

So long story short, I’ve been trying to find optician apprenticeships for several months now with no luck. They always end up hiring people with optical experience, which I have none of.

An optician at Walmart recommended that I just get some experience under my belt working any position at a retail store. So after tons of rejections, visionworks hired me. I’ve been there for a week now and I am literally being taught how to be an optician from nothing. This week alone, I’ve adjusted frames, taught how to help patients pick glasses, sold contacts, sold lenses, learned about eye anatomy & medical conditions, learned all about lenses and frames and contacts, learned how to read an Rx, learned how to manage insurance etc. They even had me learn the pre-exam machines.

Whats odd is that I’m in a licensed state, so I don’t even know how it’s allowed that im able to do all of this, but idk. I’m grateful to be getting all this optician experience because once I do study for licensure it‘ll be easier. And they are really flexible with scheduling like if you need a certain day off in 2 weeks it’s no big deal.

But here’s the thing..

I’m getting paid less than a McDonald’s employee here. And another more clinical oriented optical office just offered me an entry level position that pays more, but it’s all technician work and no optician-like work. So id get my optical experience, but not the optician stuff. And they’re a bit more strict when it comes to time off because id be like one of only a small handful of techs.

Should I stay at VisionWorks or take the other one?