What does an optical technician do?
Optical lab technicians, also known as ophthalmic laboratory technicians, create prescription eyeglasses and contact lenses. They work together with optometrists, opticians, and ophthalmologists. They received orders from optometrists and opticians to create prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses as per requirement. They also do the cutting, polishing, and grinding lenses as per prescription for products like microscopes, binoculars, or telescopes. They do their work by a computer program and automated tools to make the prescribed lenses before it is sent off to the customer.
Optical technician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real optical technician resumes:
- Manage high-end optical for private optometry office.
- Manage payroll to correspond with allot labor allowance.
- Maintain coating quality using adhesion testing and spectrophotometers, and manage coating hues and reflectance adjustments.
- Develop and dispense RX eyewear.
- Train associates to acquire and retain ABO certificate.
- Generate (cut) prescription RX into lens blanks.
- Frame selection, dispense, adjust, repair, verify orders, VSP billing, cleaning, and display work.
- Maintain payroll percentage below company guidelines.
- Obtain proficiency in EHR documentation and chart management.
- Provide insurance and billing information to patients an insurance companies upon request.
- Interact positively with patients, working diligently to create satisfaction and circumvent customers from becoming disgruntle.
- Perform clinic work-ups/manifest refraction utilizing EMR, program and maintain laser equipment, clinical photography, and assist physicians during surgeries.
- Oversee the filing of Medicaid orders, as well as end of day money count, and store inventory
- Create precision optics according to specs using grinders and polishers.
- Set up and operate machines such as generators, polishers, edgers and hardeners to fabricate lenses to specifications.
Optical technician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 86% of Optical Technicians are proficient in Patients, Chrome, and Dexterity. They’re also known for soft skills such as Business skills, Communication skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Optical Technicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 86%
Pretested patients in preparation for the optometrist examination utilizing Exam Writer.
- Chrome, 9%
Utilized Office Mate, Exam Writer, EMR, Google Chrome and Demand Force
- Dexterity, 1%
Showed manual dexterity, hand eye coordination and precision to work with different types of lenses and tools.
- CNC, 0%
Set up and Operate CNC Optical Grinding (optotech) Vertical saw cutting glasses Hand Polish glasses Laser Marking
- Math, 0%
Perform conversion formulas and math calculations.
- Optical Components, 0%
Performed incoming inspection of optical components to ensure operating specifications.
"patients," "chrome," and "dexterity" are among the most common skills that optical technicians use at work. You can find even more optical technician responsibilities below, including:
Business skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for an optical technician to have is business skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "opticians are often responsible for the business aspects of running an optical store." Optical technicians often use business skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "processed daily and monthly business reports verified and processed insurance claims scheduled and confirmed patient appointments conducted payroll on a weekly basis"
Communication skills. Many optical technician duties rely on communication skills. "opticians must listen closely to what customers want," so an optical technician will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways optical technician responsibilities rely on communication skills: "assisted customers to fit their glasses to their personal preference facilitated communication between spanish-speaking patients and the doctors with translation assistance. "
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for optical technicians to perform their duties. For an example of how optical technician responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "because some opticians work in stores, they must answer questions and know about the products they sell." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of an optical technician: "assist guests with scheduling appointments, and selecting frame style with lenses options to meet their needs. ".
Dexterity. optical technician responsibilities often require "dexterity." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "opticians frequently use special tools to make final adjustments and repairs to eyeglasses." This resume example shows what optical technicians do with dexterity on a typical day: "moved forward with the company to working hands on with patients on both the optical and optometry side of the practice. "
The three companies that hire the most optical technicians are:
- Clarkson Eyecare Inc16 optical technicians jobs
- Zayo Group7 optical technicians jobs
- Award Staffing
7 optical technicians jobs
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Compare different optical technicians
Optical technician vs. Contact lens fitter
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, optical technician responsibilities require skills like "patients," "chrome," "dexterity," and "manual dexterity." Meanwhile a typical contact lens fitter has skills in areas such as "treatment options," "a-scan," "epic," and "laser procedures." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
The education levels that contact lens fitters earn slightly differ from optical technicians. In particular, contact lens fitters are 2.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than an optical technician. Additionally, they're 16.7% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Optical technician vs. Dispensing optician apprentice
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, optical technician responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "patients," "chrome," "dexterity," and "manual dexterity." Meanwhile, a dispensing optician apprentice has duties that require skills in areas such as "schedule appointments," "hipaa," "customer complaints," and "order entry." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
In general, dispensing optician apprentices achieve similar levels of education than optical technicians. They're 2.2% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 16.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Optical technician vs. Licensed dispensing optician
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from optical technician resumes include skills like "chrome," "dexterity," "manual dexterity," and "cnc," whereas a licensed dispensing optician is more likely to list skills in "ansi," "customer complaints," "lens selection," and "eye care. "
Most licensed dispensing opticians achieve a similar degree level compared to optical technicians. For example, they're 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Optical technician vs. Dispensing optician
Types of optical technician
Updated January 8, 2025
