The Dart Maker Blog

Nomenclature often gets in the way of simple ideas. So just so that we all understand what we are talking about, I wanted you to understand that in England, the description optician refers either to the business (or the person running the said business) that sells prescription glasses or contact lenses to the local population.

It’s big business, with the total revenue for the United Kingdom Optician market currently being around £2.4 billion - at least it was in 2006, but since then we’ve had a bit of a slow down in the economy. They estimate that about 2 in every 3 people in the UK needs some mold of optical assistance - be it with glasses or contact lenses.

According to UK law, spectacles and contact lenses need to be made on the base of a formal eye examination. The eye examination needs to be directed by a registered optopmetrist or ophthalmologist. There are about 17.5 million of these executed every year.

They tend to not let you know about this, but it is actual a legal right of yours to be given the prescription of your specs (or intended eyeglasses) if you have paid for your eye examination. All The Same, the prescribing optician would always like to be your dispensing optician as well, as that is where the big money is made. But you could take the prescription that you have given for and choose to have your cheapeyeglasses made by a different (cheaper) vendor.

If you are canny, you could elect to purchase your glasses online and save yourself a lot of cash, whilst not stinting on the quality of the product that you are purchasing. You obviously need to be careful about who you buy your glasses from, but if you choose wisely, you will be fine.