Be an Optometric Technician
How to Be an Optometric Technician
Millions of U.S. citizens require corrective eyeglasses or contacts. If you’re interested in optometry as a career, but don’t want to take the entire four-year post-graduate optometry course, you may be interested in becoming an optometric technician instead.
An optometric technician performs more technical duties compared to optometric assistant. An optometric technician assists the optometrist in conducting eye examinations. Part of the duties of an optometric technician includes taking measurements, teaching patients to use contact lenses, explaining eye exercises to them, cleaning instruments and ordering supplies. An optometric technician may also be asked to handle the billing of patients and the keeping of records.
An optometric technician is in charge of testing patients for color vision, depth perception, visual acuity, pupil reflexes, eye pressure, visual field testing and blood pressure. An optometric technician must explain to the patient the proper use and care of eyeglasses and contact lenses.
To be a good optometric technician, you need to have great communication skills, be very organized and self-motivated, be able to have good judgment, and be able to handle hectic schedules.
An optometric technician may also help make and repair eyeglasses, and should be able to knowledgeably guide patients in choosing the right eyeglass frame to buy. An optometric technician must also know how to clean sophisticated ocular equipment which usually comes with special handling instructions. An optometric technician is often supervised closely by a licensed optometrist, so there are relatively few risks on the job.
A typical workweek is about 40 hours, and may include weekends or evenings on overtime depending on what the patient needs. There are usually part-time positions available in this profession.
