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From the San Antonio Express-News |
Vision for the future
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Posted: 04/04/2004 12:00 AM CST
A new
government-sponsored apprenticeship should significantly boost opticians' pay
and enhance their place in the optical industry, supporters of the new program
said.
Last month the
U.S. Labor Department approved a paid program to allow registered opticians and
registered contact lens technicians to train apprentices in both eyeglass and
contact lens fittings over a four-year period.
The apprentices
will start at $10 an hour and receive a $1 an hour raise every six months as
they complete examination requirements and coursework provided by the
Registered Opticians Association of Texas.
Sam Johnson,
the association's president, said he expects the number of opticians to
increase because of the program.
Apprentices
will learn to measure eyesight and to make artificial eyes.
"We have
people waiting to hire opticians with those qualifications," Johnson said.
"They'll end up coming out earning $40,000 a year not having gone to
college."
That's quite a
boost in skills, authority and pay over current opticians.
At the end of
2002, entry-level opticians earned an average of $7.45 an hour, or $15,535 a
year, while experienced opticians earned $10.60 an hour, or $22,010 a year, in
San Antonio, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Technology and
optical store chains have changed the role of opticians. They still dispense
glasses, contact lenses, artificial eyes and in some cases cosmetic shells over
eyes, but there are fewer technical skills required to do the job, 41-year
optician Frank Montemayor said.
"It's
become more of a sales job," Montemayor, 64, said.
Texas doesn't
require a state license to practice. A person can voluntarily register with the
Texas Department of Health after completing seven hours of classroom study and
passing the American Board of Opticianry and the National Contact Lens
Examiners tests. They must complete five hours of additional education each
year to stay on the registry.
When Montemayor
started with Dietz-McLean Optical in 1963, opticians had to know all aspects of
the lens-making process. They learned to shave blocks of glass to create curved
lenses, cut lenses to fit frames, buffed them to smooth edges and bored holes
for screws.
Optical stores
required opticians to be certified by the American Board of Opticianry because
ophthalmologists wouldn't refer their customers to shops that didn't have
certified opticians, Johnson said.
But in recent
years, doctors felt there was less of a medical necessity to use certified
opticians because of advances in lens-making, and some stopped requiring shops
to have certified opticians before they would issue referrals.
Then chain
stores began hiring optometrists to take measurements in more convenient
locations for consumers and gradually captured 70 percent of lens sales. There
are roughly 70,000 shops distributing optical products in the United States.
Opticians were relegated to helping customers pick and fit frames in many of
them.
Many
independent shops closed. Montemayor closed the Frost Stores shop he'd opened
with a McLean family member during that era and then tried his own company for
five years before going back to working for an optometrist.
Today, he and
colleagues still mount lenses in frames, assemble frames and bend frames to fit
comfortably on a client's face. He quizzes customers on how they use their
glasses to help recommend the best lenses.
After taking
lens and frame orders and measuring the distance between each pupil and the
center of a customer's forehead, Montemayor sends the order to the now heavily
automated manufacturing lab and waits for them to arrive.
Before turning
them over to customers, he verifies that the lens are centered, bifocal cuts
are level, the prescriptions match orders and that products haven't been mixed.
"If you
mix one lens from one company with one from another company, then you can have
problems with waves," he said. "Every time you order a new lens, the
lab charges you, and if the error was your fault you can't charge it to the
customer."
He acts as
quality control for physicians and eyeglass manufacturers. He lends a second
set of eyes to a prescription.
For example,
when a prescription's strength varies significantly between eyes, oftentimes
when cataracts are involved, he'll contact the doctor for approval of special
lenses.
"This way
you don't get into trouble, and you owe the courtesy to the doctor," he
said.
asidime@express-news.net