I'm a big, mean SOB

[drk]

So occasionally I'll refract someone and they'll be sensitive enough that I want to Rx in 1/8 diopters. Is it a big deal? Nope. Let me tell you how I refract on young people:

After the binocular blur balance, I do a red-green and I'll be darned if sometimes it goes like this: +0.25 = red clearer. +0.00 = green clearer.

So what do I do? I give them +0.12.

Now there will be about one patient out of 20 that wants to take their spRx and do with it what they want. Maybe they're going to do their own opticianry. Maybe they're traveling back to their home country of India and want to buy glasses there. Or Warby Parker, which has prompted this terse post.

"It's Warby Parker...we have 1/8 diopters on your Rx for patient blah blah. Please pull the record, make a judgement call, and provide us a new Rx, because we can't handle it."

Well, no, I won't do that.

I don't know who's going to Warby Parker. I don't care who goes to Warby Parker. 19/20 spRxs are for internal use. It's not a "me problem", it's a "you problem".

Aren't there licensed opticians that can think their way around this? If your drop down list doesn't include +/- 0.12D, put it in "special instructions". Or round up or round down.

For crying out loud, an optician can design lenses based on the prescription (computer glasses, reading glasses, POW compensation, vertex compensation). Shamir's driving lenses ADD MINUS for the distance zone (which I think is stupid) without asking. Just sack up.

Hell, if you're ordering digital lenses, you're going to see weird powers coming back on the lab tickets, anyway, and the variance is going to look a lot odder than you rounding up or down.

Just..don't...call...me. I don't work for you and I don't get paid to help.

All this from a company (and I'm not singling them out) who lets people input their own parameters on their websites. Talk about straining out gnats and swallowing camels.

[Elvis Is Alive]

A few things that could be in play here:
1. Incompetence
2. Computer system can't accept anything other than 0.25 D increments
3. Corporate red tape BS that won't accept your "non-standard" rx.

None of those things are your problem, of course.

[DanLiv]

Warby Parker called you?? Whoa that's rich. Yup just as you did, tell them that's the Rx, if they can't handle it *shrug*.

We have a similar problem with Costco calling for computer rxs. I tell them there is no computer rx, that's the designing optician's job. They say they can only order as written. I say bummer for them.

[drk]

I get that, too.
I mean, they hire opticians. They need to flex those brain muscles a little.

[dwlk]

it baffles me the amount of opticians now who cant customize what theyre given for the pt, every script i give a patient i will tell them "where ever you go SHOULD be able to do what you want with this, if they cant, do not get glasses there." do they listen? not always, do they come back to ask me whats wrong? yeah, always. im also seeing way more who cant convert from plus to minus cyl, and im like, its not that hard.... its crazy simple math.. *shrug*

[Elvis Is Alive]

I've seen more than one company that only allow the eyeglass RX to be filled as written. Opticians and customers alike should run far away from these places.

[optical24/7]

A lot of online sellers are using finished, stock lenses, hence the 1/4th power requirements for them. The funny thing is, ANSI tolerances for +/-6.50 sph powers is +/-.13 D. They can round up or down and still be “ in tolerance “.

[NAICITPO]

They work for a company where the person coding their software wasn't an optician and wasn't aware of the possibility of going to an 8th of a diopter. And yes, they are using stock lenses and aren't sending them to a lab to surface the lens so 1/8th isn't available.

But I do love that you could essentially ignore the 8th of a diopter and still be within tolerance like optical24/7 pointed out. If I worked for a company like this and I had to choose between two quarter diopter powers when I had a doc who wrote it as an 8th I would choose the least plus.

[NAICITPO]

Aren't there licensed opticians that can think their way around this? If your drop down list doesn't include +/- 0.12D, put it in "special instructions". Or round up or round down.

It's a lot easier to not think and just follow the rules like a good little corporate optical worker. Corporate companies encourage people not to think outside the box but to excel at what the higher ups have thought for them to do.

[Lensman11]

As a lab 1/8 drop are not always possible to produce and I seriously doubt that the patient can tell the difference. Front curve tolerance .02 tooling tolerance .06 thickness tolerance .2 index variation unknown if the all go in the same direction you will be out of tolerance

[NAICITPO]

As a lab 1/8 drop are not always possible to produce and I seriously doubt that the patient can tell the difference. Front curve tolerance .02 tooling tolerance .06 thickness tolerance .2 index variation unknown if the all go in the same direction you will be out of tolerance

So you are saying drk is a mean and dumb SOB? ^_^

[Lensman11]

No I am not I am just speaking from my experience. Opticians in general are poorly trained and most are not licensed not that a license means good skills. I love when I see an ad for an optician that says no experience needed. What do you expect when there are no standards for a job.

[drk]

Ha ha.

I agree 0.12D is not discernable. In at least 1/2 the patients 0.25D isn't. So I'm under no illusions.

In science, one makes as accurate a measurement as possible, so when errors mount up each step is as good as possible.

So that's why 1. holding up the patient in Warby Parker 2. paying Warby Parker opticians to phone a physician's office 3. paying the physician's office to take a call 4. having a physician review a record and 4. repeating the process in the reverse direction is STUPID.

[Lensman11]

Just to make a point a current ad in the help wanted section is looking for an experienced lab tech in both surface and finish pay $15 to $25 an hour. Let’s be real who with any experience would work for $15 an hour.

[chamilun]

theres an OD in nashville who has been around forever who does this also.