UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Oculist
A term used to describe an eye specialist, more commonly known as an ophthalmologist in the UK. The term oculist is little used now.

Ophthalmic Optician
An old term for what is now known as an optometrist. The term is still used by some but was largely abandoned because of the possible association with unqualified opticians after de-regulation of the optical market. All optometrists must be qualified and registered.

Ophthalmologist
A doctor of medicine specialising in diseases of the eye and surgery.

Optician
A person who understands how to read a prescription for glasses and who is able to advise, supply or manufacture spectacles to the prescription. In the UK the term optician is often used in place of the term optometrist. Dispensing Opticians can be qualified but many are not since this is no longer a protected title and anyone can call themselves by this name. Only qualified opticians or optometrists are allowed to dispense spectacles to children, the partially sighted and the blind! See Ophthalmic optician, ophthalmologist, oculist, and optometrist.

Optometrist
A person qualified to recognise visual health problems and prescribe spectacles, contact lenses and dispense low visual aids. Some practitioners also offer Vision Therapy.

Taken from eyezone. All copyrights acknowleged.

"Dispensing Opticians can be qualified but many are not since this is no longer a protected title and anyone can call themselves by this name"

The title Dspensing Optician is still protected under Article 28 of the Opticians Act.

Optical assistants are referred to, in some companies, as Optical Dispensers...which sounds similar, but they won't have had the same training, nor will they be registered with the General Optical Council and therefore are neither permitted to dispense spectacles to children nor to the sight impaired.