Union Eyes Offers the Best in Soft and Speciality Contact Lenses Made in America
Not all optics are the same. Union Eyes offers the latest technology with contact lenses to meet your specific needs. You can be confident that you will receive the highest quality lenses with professional, personalized service.
Soft Contact Lenses
The optical quality of a lens prescription can vary based on design, material, curvature, manufacturer, and thickness. There are literally thousands of different types of lens designs that can be made in your exact lens prescription. Not all optics are the same. Union Eyes offers the best, most cost-effective optical solutions to meet your specific needs. You can be confident that you will receive the highest quality optics with professional, personalized service.Diagnosis And Treatment Of Keratoconus
Keratoconus is a vision disorder that occurs when the normally round cornea (the front part of the eye) becomes thin and irregular (cone) shaped. This abnormal shape prevents the light entering the eye from being focused correctly on the retina and causes distortion of vision. At Union Eyes we offer the latest in diagnostic technology including corneal topography and anterior segment ocular coherence tomography to make a proper early diagnosis of this condition. We also offer the latest in advanced contact lens designs to comfortably treat this condition and dramatically enhance our patients’ vision.
In its earliest stages, keratoconus causes slight blurring and distortion of vision and increased sensitivity to glare and light. These symptoms usually appear in the late teens or late 20s. Keratoconus may progress for 10-20 years and then slow in its progression. Each eye may be affected differently. As keratoconus progresses, the cornea bulges more and vision may become more distorted. In a small number of cases, the cornea will swell and cause a sudden and significant decrease in vision. The swelling occurs when the strain of the cornea's protruding cone-like shape causes a tiny crack to develop. The swelling may last for weeks or months as the crack heals and is gradually replaced by scar tissue. If this sudden swelling does occur, your doctor can prescribe eye drops for temporary relief, but there are no medicines that can prevent the disorder from progressing.
Eyeglasses or soft contact lenses may be used to correct the mild nearsightedness and astigmatism that is caused by the early stages for keratoconus. As the disorder progresses and cornea continues to thin and change shape, custom soft contact lenses, hybrid lenses such as a SynergEyes contact lens, scleral contact lenses, or a rigid gas permeable contact lenses can be prescribed to correct vision adequately. These specialized contact lenses must be carefully fitted, and frequent checkups and lens changes may be needed to achieve and maintain good vision. In a few cases, a corneal transplant is necessary. However, even after a corneal transplant, eyeglasses or contact lenses are often still needed to correct vision.
The staff at Union Eyes are experts in providing care for this unique condition at no out of pocket cost to members and their dependents.
Children's Lenses
Contact lenses are safer and healthier than ever. With the advent of daily disposable contact lenses and custom silicone hydrogel lenses, children can now enjoy safe, comfortable, clear vision with the latest in contact lens technology from Union Eyes.
The doctors at Union Eyes have fit children as young as eight months old with soft contact lenses and would love for your child to experience life without full-time glasses wear. Our experienced doctors and staff will spend the time to insure your child has the experience and technique necessary to safely and comfortable wear contact lenses.
Young athletes depend on clear vision and a wide angle of view to maximize their performance. Contact lenses provide your young athlete with natural, clear vision by placing corrective optics on the front part of the eye without special distortion. Give your child every competitive advantage and call Union Eyes for a contact lens consultation for your child.
Scleral Lenses
Union Eyes is one of only a few offices in Chicagoland to offer scleral contact lens technology. Scleral lenses are large-diameter rigid gas permeable lenses. They can range from 14 mm to over 20 mm in diameter. They are called “scleral” lenses because they completely cover the cornea (the clear dome of tissue that covers the colored part of the eye) and extend onto the sclera (the white part of the eye that forms the outer wall of the eye).
Scleral lenses may be more comfortable for patients than corneal lenses. The cornea is one of the most highly sensitive tissues in the body. The conjunctiva (soft, clear tissue that lies over the sclera) is much less sensitive than the cornea. Lenses that rest primarily or exclusively on the conjunctiva may induce less sensation than smaller lenses that rest upon the cornea.
In some patients, corneal tissue is damaged. Scleral lenses trap a reservoir of fluid behind the lens. This fluid protects the cornea, and may even allow it to heal in some cases. Corneal lenses can become decentered, and may even become dislodged. Since scleral and corneoscleral lenses extend under the upper and lower lids, they rarely dislocate.
Patients with irregular corneas, patients with conditions that affect the tear film, and patients with refractive error (nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism) who are unable to wear other forms of correction could also benefit from scleral lenses.
Conditions such as keratoconus and pellucid marginal corneal degeneration cause irregularity in the surface of the eye. Surgery (keratoplasty, refractive surgery) can also lead to corneal irregularity. If the cornea is not smooth, vision will not be easily correctable with spectacles or most soft contact lenses. Scleral lenses mask this irregularity and allow for clearer vision by providing a smooth front surface through which light can enter the eye.
Patients who need visual correction, but are unable to wear other contact lenses, may find larger-diameter lenses more comfortable than other lens designs. At Union Eyes we find scleral lens technology is most beneficial in our patients that suffer from corneal disease such as keratoconus or patients that suffered significant changes to the front surface of their eye due to refractive surgery. If you feel you could benefit from this new technology, please call our office for more information.
Bifocal Lenses
Are you having trouble reading text on your phone? Is reading a menu in a dimly lit restaurant becoming problematic? If you are over the age of forty and are having difficulty reading small print, reading glasses are not your only option. Bifocal contact lenses may be the perfect solution to your visual needs. Bifocal or multifocal contact lenses have undergone dramatic design enhancements over the last decade.
At Union Eyes, we believe in providing you with the best contact lens technology on the market to allow you to achieve the functional vision you need. In the past, monovision contact lenses were the only option to provide the presbyopic population with distance and near vision without glasses. We now have several options available that allow our patients to achieve functional distance, near, and computer vision with soft, hard, or hybrid bifocal contact lenses.
The doctors at Union Eyes are most excited about the incredible advancements in bifocal contact lens technology made by Synergeyes Duette Multifocal lenses. We have known for years that gas permeable contact lenses provide patients with crisp, clear vision, but they are often uncomfortable and many patients are unable to adapt to the physical feel of these lenses. Soft bifocal contact lenses can be effective for many patients, but they don’t provide the clear vision and enhanced reading capability that many of our patients demand.
Synergeyes Duette Multifocal contact lenses combine the best features of both hard and soft contact lenses in a superior bifocal hybrid design. These lenses have a soft silicone skirt that surrounds a thin gas permeable lens to give the patient superior comfort and clear, stable vision at all distances. Dr. Robert Steinmetz was chosen as one of the first doctors in the country to provide the Synergeyes Duette Multifocal to his patients. We have had incredible success with this lens and would love to be able to provide you with this new technology.
Orthokeratology & CRT
Would you like to be free of your glasses and contacts during waking hours?
Did you know that LASIK is not your only option?
You now have a choice! Corneal Refractive Therapy or CRT is a technologically advanced, non-invasive, non-surgical process which reshapes the cornea while you sleep. Patients who are candidates wear a uniquely designed oxygen permeable contact lens during sleep and remove the lens upon waking. During the day patients enjoy the benefits of clear vision without correction. That’s right--clear vision without glasses or daytime contact lenses!
Corneal Refractive Therapy is ideal for contact lens intolerant dry eye patients, athletic teens, swimmers, and children with rapidly changing eyeglass prescriptions. CRT is completely reversible and best of all there are no age restrictions for CRT which makes it an ideal option for children and growing teens.
Make life without glasses and daytime contacts a reality and call Union Eyes for a CRT consultation.
Best of all, these services are provided at Union Eyes at no out-of-pocket cost to the member! This is an annual benefit of up to $2500 a year that was secured by your union to help prevent children from myopia progression.