Specsavers’ recent dispensing workshop series featured paediatric facial anthropometry specialist Dr Alicia Thompson, who focused on developing the dispensing opticians’ (DOs’) frame-fitting skills for children.
Dr Thompson, director of education, research and professional development at the Association of British Dispensing Opticians, recently completed her doctoral thesis on ‘Paediatric facial anthropometry applied to spectacle frame design’, where she studied gender, ethnicity and Down syndrome paediatric facial parameters compared with adults. As part of her work, Dr Thompson also collaborated with a UK artist to create anatomically correct silicone children’s heads. Workshop participants used these to practice taking facial measurements on children of various ages and ethnicities and compare them with their own facial measurements to better understand the differences.
