finding good opticians

**anjirlly** · 07-12-2005, 11:08 PM

After several days browsing optiboard, I'm convinced I shouldn't order glasses over the internet and should avoid chain stores in malls, but I still don't know what questions I should be asking to find an independent optician who's highly skilled on the optical side of the business (& not just the marketing side :-P). As far as I can tell from Michigan's Department of Community Health website, opticians here don't have to be licensed. How can I as a consumer tell whether someone really understands the materials, works with good labs or has mastered finishing processes, and prioritizes optics over brands with big marketing budgets? With all the recent technological changes, it seems particularly important to find someone like Cinders who, for example, tries out small AR suppliers but doesn't swamp patients with too many choices which we certainly don't have the expertise to assess.

Although I've been wearing glasses for 30+ years, until reading this board I never acquired a sense of the optician's role as an interpreter of the rx + the patient to the lab. Even Consumer Reports in June 2001 emphasized frame selection and price.

A little knowledge being a dangerous thing, I thought I needed hi index lenses w/AR due to a fairly strong prescription:
R -5.75 -1.50 015
L -6.25 -1.00 173

But then I read about myopes having trouble with chromatic aberration when switching from an older (plastic or polycarbonate?) material. (My current glasses date back to 1995; outer edges look about 6 mm thick on an approximately 49 X 32 oval lens.)

What sorts of questions will identify (without insulting) an optician who would walk me through the tradeoffs between appropriate lens materials (including glass?), and, if need be, steer me away from my infatuations with rimless and cateye frames?

Many thanks for your thoughts!

**AWTECH** · 07-12-2005, 11:23 PM

I would advise you that I doubt that anyone can tell you enough of the right information without you either then needing more information or by not fully understanding how all of the variables you may select may or may not have a conflict, you jump to a false conclusion. What you are asking for is the same as internet medical help with complex problem. The person who is on optiboard who is knowledgable enough to help you, will not give you what you want unless you visit them in person. The ones on optiboard who do give you internet advise on your specific Rx, should not. General information such as my suggestion below is about as far as I think they should go.What I would suggest is get people in your area who wear glasses and have used certain optical retailers to refer you with satisfaction and let that guide you. The only area of caution I will tell you is in optial retailing as with any retailing if the person you select does not have access to a product that they know might be better for you, you won't have the opportunity to know. This is why local satisfied referals should give you the peace of mind that you are making the right choice.

Jo · 07-12-2005, 11:28 PM

Other than what awtech has already said, I would find out if folks in the office are ABOC certified. It's no gaurantee that you will get great Optician but if someone has put the time into certification they are more than likely a bit more serious about what they do.
http://www.abo-ncle.org/consumer.html

Also try members of the OAM:
http://www.theoam.org/aboutus.cgi

However, like awtech has said, word of mouth is a great source.

**Ed_Optician** · 07-12-2005, 11:41 PM

I know until a few years ago one of the colleges in MI had an Ophthalmic Dispensing program. Find an optician who graduated from Ferris State's Optical program and is ABO/NCLE certified you will probably have a good experience

Ed

**cinders831** · 07-13-2005, 08:02 AM

Your right that in MI you dont have to be licensed but there are plenty of us that are ABO certified. Just ask around to people you trust and when you get some names of offices where family or friends have had good experiences call and ask if there are any ABO certified opticians on staff. I hope this helps.
What area of MI are you in?

**chip anderson** · 07-13-2005, 09:47 AM

Go to a good optical lab and hire away the benchman.

**anjirlly** · 07-14-2005, 11:49 AM

Thank you for your responses, especially the concrete ABO and Ferris State/optical school leads, and the opinion that the chance of chromatic aberration is small enough that at least one of you would be willing to risk having to remake the lenses.

I definitely want to work with someone face-to-face, but finding him or her through word of mouth just didn't seem very reliable to me, considering how ignorant I found myself to be, how Consumer Reports claimed most people were satisfied with the service they received wherever they went, and how most of my fellow grad students wear contacts and/or go for coupons & deals at the chains. However, I'll start polling the people around me here in Ann Arbor.

Again, thanks for allowing the public to follow your discussions. Have you ever considered mining them to create brochures that would educate laypeople about the kinds of problems you solve? The consumer link at ABO is written in bureaucratese, and it only provides a negative message geared toward stripping away false security and instilling alarm about the credentials (or lack thereof) of dispensers.