‘It is a huge achievement': Phil Howlett on his Dispensing Optician of the Year award

Providing interesting case studies to back up your expertise as a dispensing optician is one way of catching the attention of the award judges and that was very much the case with Dispensing Optician of the Year category winner Phil Howlett from Planit Opticians in Colne.

In a very professional entry, he gave the example of dispensing to a patient with a prescription of -21.00/-19.00, but it was the next case study that really stood out. This was a detailed description of the work that went into creating a frame for a three-year-old child with hydrocephalus, for whom a conventional frame was not an option. Because of the patient’s abnormally shaped head, Howlett detailed how he adapted a frame, while endeavouring to make it look as mainstream as possible, a job that was appreciated by the child’s parents. He took an Oakley design and covered the joints in heat-shrink silicone tubing for protection, with the temples shaped and shortened as required. The urgent job was completed with robust UV-protecting polycarbonate lenses and rubber end tips with ear lock grips, as a head strap was not an option.