Odin Says ...

Clash of the (Eye) Titans

Feb 16, 2009

'Take a look at our selection' by gak, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

Quebec's order of opticians is at it again. For the second time since 2008, the Ordre des opticiens d'ordonnances du Québec has filed a series of complaints against their rivals, the Ordre des optometristes du Québec.

First, a little background. Just what is the difference between these two professions? An optician is an eye care professional who provides corrective lenses based on a prescription. An optometrist, however, is an eye care professional who undergoes significantly more training in order to examine and diagnose eye disorders as well as write the said prescription for the correction of a refractive error.  In short, a dispensing optician fits and adjusts eyeglasses and contact lenses according to the optometrist's prescription (although the optometrist may also do the fitting and adjusting).

So "where's the problem?", one may ask, since visibly the two professions have very separate and distinctive functions and duties. The optician's camp is targeting 16 branches of Greiche & Scaff, Lunetterie Sears and Optique Laurier, all large optometrist chains. They are claiming that those branches are having eye exams taken by a total of 22 unqualified assistants (as opposed to the branches' optometrists). On Wednesday the 11th of February, the order of opticians has filed a set of 31 complaints against those 22 individuals, stating that they are not qualified or legally allowed to make those tests.

This new round of claims comes after an initial set of 16 similar complaints filed in January 2008. The newer set, seeking $45,000 in fines, has not yet been proven. However, the Quebec court has heard three of the claims, and will issue a verdict within the next few weeks.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia articles "Optician" and "Optometrist". Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.