At the end of the previous session, we were given a frame within our groups and we had to write down an accurate description of the frame. Each frame was different. At the start of this session we were given 5 minutes in our groups to go over our descriptions of our frames and anything we may have missed. Then one person from each group had to stand up and describe the frame. Our frame was a pink children’s frame, with loop end sides and a saddle bridge. It also had a 3 charnier joint – one at the front and 2 on the side. It also had sprung sides. After we were introduced to the City 2000 frame ruler, I was surprised at the number of measurements for a spectacle frame that were possible from a single ruler and also how many different types of measurements there were. It was very interesting to know that dispensing opticians had to do many different measurements on spectacle frames before they can be supplied to a patient.
When Mark went through the presentation about the frame measurements section in the PQEs, I was feeling a little worried because it we only had about 21 minutes to measure 3 different frames, because I would also have to use 3 minutes per frame checking my measurements and going over my answers in pen. But as the session went on, I realised that this would be sufficient time in which to do the measurements because some of the measurements were quite easy. For example, measurements such as box centre distance were easy to do because it was just the box lens size added to the distance between the lenses. In terms of regular bridge frame measurements, the hardest