See also: Scientific Equipment Optician
An optician is a licensed health care practitioner who provides lenses for the correction of a refractive error. Corrective lenses may be contact lenses, spectacles lenses, low vision aids or ophthalmic prosthetics to those who are partially sighted. The corrective lenses are mounted either on the eye as contact lenses or mounted in a frame or holder in front of the eye as spectacles or as a monocle.
Like many health care providers, opticians are regulated professionals. The profession is often regulated by optician specific agencies, as in Canada and some states of the USA, or jointly with optometry such as the New Zealand Optometrist and Dispensing Opticians Boardor the United Kingdom General Optical Council. Opticians usually work independently from an optometrist or ophthalmologist although some opticians may work in a joint practice with other eye care professionals. Opticians convert a prescription for the correction of a refractive error into an ophthalmic lens or some other device, such as reading aids or telescopic lenses.
An optician will consult with a client to design an ophthalmic lens or appliance to best meet their needs. Opticians gather information from the patient on the use of the appliance, their level of activity, the necessity for protection from radiant energy or projectiles, and eye and facial features. In providing services Opticians are required to use a variety of instrumentation; these range from simple measuring devices to complex examination equipment. The list of equipment is often specified in jurisdiction specific Professional Standards of Practice . The standards of the College of Opticians of British Columbia serve as an example.
Opticians specialize in the design, fitting, and dispensing of eyeglasses, contact lenses, low vision aids, and prosthetic ocular devices. Using the initial prescription from an Ophthalmologist (medical doctors) or Optometrist (general eye practitioners) they determine the specifications of various ophthalmic devices that will give the necessary correction to a person's eyesight. Some registered or licensed Opticians also design and fit special lenses to correct cosmetic, traumatic or anatomical defects these devices are called shells or artificial eyes. Other registered or licensed Opticians manufacture lenses to their own specifications and design and manufacture spectacle frames and other devices.
Opticians may work in any variety of settings such as independent or joint practice, hospitals, eye care centers or retail stores. However, registered opticians have to meet standards of practice and training, commit to ongoing education, hold professional liability insurance and are held to these standards by their respective regulating bodies.
There is an increasing demand for glasses and contact lenses, so job growth should be average for dispensing opticians through 2012. The demographic of middle age and elderly people is expected to grow rapidly, creating more demand by new corrective lens users and those who require regular vision care.
History of Opticians and Spectacle makers
The first known artistic representation of eyeglasses was painted by Tommaso da Modena in 1352. He did a sequence of frescoes of brothers efficiently reading or replicating manuscripts; one holds a magnifying glass while the other has glasses suspended on his nose. Once Tommaso had established the example, other painters positioned spectacles on the noses of many of subjects, almost certainly as a representation of wisdom and respect.
One of the most noteworthy developments in spectacle production in the 16th century was the introduction of concave lenses for the myopic or nearsighted. Pope Leo X, who was very myopic, wore concave spectacles when hunting and professed they enabled him to see clearer than his cohorts.
The first spectacles utilized quartz lenses since optical glass had not been developed. The lenses were set into bone, metal and leather mountings, frequently fashioned like two small magnifying glasses with handles riveted together and set in an inverted V shape that could be balanced on the bridge of the nose. The use of spectacles extended from Italy to the Germany, Spain, France and Portugal.
From their inception, eyeglasses posed a dilemma that wasn't solved for almost 350 years: how to keep them on the bridge of the nose without falling. Spanish spectacle makers of the 17th century experimented with ribbons of silk that could be attached to the frames and then looped over the ears. Spanish and Italian missionaries carried the new models to spectacle wearers in China. The Chinese attached little ceramic or metal weights to the strings instead of making loops. In 1730 a London optician named Edward Scarlett perfected the use of rigid sidepieces that rested atop the ears. This perfection rapidly spread across the continent. In 1752 James Ayscough publicized his latest invention, spectacles with double hinged side pieces. These became very popular and appear more often than any other kind in paintings and prints of the period. Lenses were fabricated of tinted glass as well as clear. Ayscough felt that the clear glass lenses gave an unpleasant glare. In Spain in 1763 Pablo Minguet recommended turquoise, green, or yellow lenses but not amber or red.
Europeans, in particular the French, were self-conscious about the use of eyeglasses. Parisian aristocrats used reading aids only in private. The gentry of England and France used a "perspective glass” or monocular which could be concealed from view easily. In Spain, however, spectacles were popular amongst all classes since they considered eyeglasses made them look more important and dignified.
Far-sighted or aging colonial Americans imported spectacles from Europe. Spectacles were primarily for the affluent and literate colonists, who required a valuable and precious appliance. Benjamin Franklin in the 1780s developed the bifocal. Bifocal lenses advanced little in the first half of the 19th century. The terms bifocal and trifocal were introduced in London by John Isaac Hawkins, whose trifocals were patented in 1827. In 1884 B. M. Hanna was granted patents on two forms of bifocals which become commercially standardized as the "cemented" and "perfection" bifocals. Both had the serious faults of ugly appearance, fragility, and dirt-collection at the dividing line. At the end of the 19th century the two sections of the lens were fused instead of cemented At the turn of the 20th century, there was a considerable increase in the use of bifocals.
Between 1781 and 1789 silver spectacles with sliding extension temples were being fabricated in France; however it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that they gained extensive popularity. John McAllister of Philadelphia began fabricating spectacles with sliding temples containing looped ends which were much easier to use with the then-popular wigs. The loop supplement the inadequacy of stability by allowing the addition of a cord or ribbon which could be tied behind the head, thus holding the eyeglasses firmly in place.
In 1826, William Beecher moved to Massachusetts from Connecticut to establish a jewelry-optical manufacturing shop. The first ophthalmic pieces he fabricated were silver spectacles which were later followed by blue steel. In 1869 the American Optical Company was incorporated and acquired the holdings of William Beecher. In 1849 J. J. Bausch immigrated to the United States from Germany. He had already served an apprenticeship as an optician in his native land and had found work in Berne. His reimbursement for the labor on a complete pair of spectacles was equal to six cents. Mr. Bausch encountered difficult times in America from 1849 until 1861, at which time war broke out. When the war prevented import of eyeglass frames, demand for his hard rubber frames sky-rocketed. Continuous expansion followed and the large Bausch and Lomb Company was formed.
The monocle, which was first called an "eye-ring", was initially introduced in England in the early 1800’s; although it had been developed in Germany during the 1700s. A young Austrian named J. F. Voigtlander studied optics in London and took the monocle idea back to Germany with him. He started making monocles in Vienna about 1814 and the fashion spread and took particularly strong roots in Germany and in Russia. The first monocle wearers were upper-class gentlemen, which may account for the aura of arrogance the monocle seemed to confer on the wearer. After World War I, the monocle fell into disrepute, its downfall in the allied sphere hastened, no doubt, by its association with the German military.
The lorgnette, two lenses in a frame the user held with a lateral handle, was another 18th century development (by Englishman George Adams). The lorgnette almost certainly developed from the scissors-glass, which was a double eyeglass on a handle. Given that the two branches of the handle came together under the nose and looked as if they were about to cut it off, they were known as binocles-ciseaux or scissors glasses. The English altered the size and form of the scissors-glasses and produced the lorgnette. The frame and handle were often artistically embellished, given that they were used mostly by women and more often as a piece of jewelry than as a visual aid. The lorgnette maintained its popularity with ladies of fashion, who chose not to wear spectacles. The lorgnette maintained its popularity to the end of the 19th century.
Pince-nez are believed to have appeared in the 1840s, but in the latter part of the century there was a great upsurge in the popularity of the pince-nez for both men and women. Gentlemen wore any style which suited them--heavy or delicate, round,
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