When did you last use your PD ruler and felt tip pen? With so much tech available at the optical dispenser’s fingertips, it’s vital to brush up on your manual skills, as Nicole Grasso recently discovered.
A lot of work as an optical dispenser requires making quick decisions and relying on prior knowledge to ensure the best outcomes for patients.
As technology develops, the number of resources we have access to at our fingertips multiplies such as automatic centration systems and digital consulting tools. Some dispensers have only ever used these systems, and they achieve excellent results.
“In our dispensing tool kit, we had a trusty pupilometer, lens inserts, PD rulers, pen torches, felt tip markers and a few handheld mirrors so our patients could see their new spectacles.”
But what happens if your systems go down? Or if you have aspirations to step outside your comfort zone and volunteer your dispensing services to remote Australian communities? Or an overseas country with limited resources, often running on power generators during harsh weather?
This severely impacts not only the use of digital measuring tools but devices such as an auto-lensmeter and your approach to dispensing.
When dispensing overseas, like Optical Dispensers Australia did in 2024 for its inaugural international outreach project in Fiji, we were faced with many challenges such as using children’s classroom tables as dispensing stations, books for an N4 reading chart, matching best fit frames and best fit prescriptions and, most importantly, relying on our training to take accurate manual pupillary distance (PD) and height measurements.
Dispensing skills and adaptions
We relied heavily on donated frames and lenses from generous sponsors, learning how to adjust them as needed. With this in mind, it varied from our usual day-to-day dispensing where you can contact your frame suppliers with any questions regarding material composition and heating requirements or even Google your questions.
Having the skills at our disposal to recognise the difference between cellulose acetate, polyamide, metal alloy, cellulose propionate, and other materials meant we could confidently make adjustments to the final fit – regardless of whether the patient needed petite spectacles or broader fitting spectacles.
Some of the frames dispensed were an inflexible polyamide, so our team needed to have a keen eye to recognise what frame shapes and sizes would be suitable for the patient before us.
Some were receiving their first pair of spectacles, so sharp vision and a comfortable fit were critical. Especially in some of the villages where the closest optometrist is hours away so the chance to pop by for a quick adjustment is severely unlikely.
Once our patients made it through the dispensing journey, screening distance and near visual acuity, they were tested by one of our two optometrists. Then, they were handed over to another dispensing team member for glasses selection and fitting with a recommended prescription. Most of the glasses we dispensed were pre-made, so they were sphere-only. We know that not every prescription is sphere-only with a matching right and left eye, and that astigmatisms are very prevalent. We were lucky to have a range of
sphero-cylindrical lenses that we could cut into frames customised for the patient.
Importance of manual skills in the field
Making these tailored lenses, we needed to take some measurements, including monocular distance PDs, monocular near centration distances and monocular heights to be able to edge and fit these lenses.
In our dispensing tool kit, we had a trusty pupilometer, lens inserts, PD rulers, pen torches, felt tip markers and a few handheld mirrors so our patients could see their new spectacles that were easy to transport from
village-to-village on our outreach program journey.
While the digital tools we often rely on streamline modern dispensing, adapting to manual methods in Fiji highlighted the value of foundational skills.
For some of us, it had been years since we took a measurement with manual tools rather than a digital device that captures both PDs and heights simultaneously. We did not have the luxury of spending 30 minutes or more with our patients. There was always another person ready to be fitted with their brand-new spectacles, so we needed to confidently measure a PD and take an appropriate height to start the process of edging and fitting these sphero-
cylindrical lenses to deliver same-day glasses.
Some of the classrooms that we were dispensing from were dimly lit with the blinds closed as to not let the hot Fijian sun warm up the rooms. This means that having a pen torch to accurately attain the pupil centre was an essential part of dispensing.
The experience of working in remote communities in Fiji taught us the importance of adaptability, teamwork, and the profound difference that access to clear vision can make.
Despite the challenges, the rewards of helping patients, especially children seeing clearly for the first time, far outweighed any logistical obstacles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole Grasso is a qualified optical dispenser and a regional compliance officer and optical trainer at the Australasian College of Optical Dispensing. She also dispenses at The Optical Co and provides volunteer dispensing services internationally.
More reading
Looking globally, acting locally at ODA international conference
April Petrusma’s 2025 industry predictions
ODA members deliver grins as well as glasses during Fiji trip
