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treatment for vision problems | Union, NJ

Eye Examinations & Treatments

At NJVision in Union, NJ, Dr. Dawn Arnold and our talented team aim to deliver the best eye care in the area. Whether you’re having trouble seeing and need to schedule an eye exam, are seeking treatment for keratoconus, or have an entirely different vision concern, you can be assured that your appointment will feel like you’re catching up with good friends.

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Eye Examinations & Treatments

Schedule an appointment

Give our office a call

Wondering what to expect during your eye exam?

Dr. Arnold and Dr. Orsini are proud to provide advanced optometric examinations to patients of all ages. Each eye exam includes a review of your health and ocular history, measurement of your prescription, evaluation of your eye health, and a determination of how well your two eyes work together. We utilize state-of-the-art equipment like Zeiss OCT (it takes an image of the different layers of the retina that you can’t see by dilation), OPTOS (which takes a picture of the first layer of the retina; it can sometimes be used in lieu of dilation), Marco OPD (an autorefractor/corneal topographer), and Antares meibographer (photo of your meibomian glands that make the oil layer of your tears).

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Keratoconus Treatment

What is keratoconus?

Keratoconus is a disease that decreases visual acuity by causing corneal distortion. The front part of the eye (i.e., the cornea) thins out and creates a cone-like shape instead of the normal bell-curved shape.

When light passes through the eye, it will go through the cornea first. With a normally shaped cornea, the light is focused onto the retina in the back of the eye, creating a clear image. With keratoconus, the light is scattered when it bounces off of the cone, which creates a blur on the retina and a blurry image.

The only way to treat this condition without surgery is with rigid gas permeable contact lenses.

Dr. Arnold has been treating keratoconus with contact lenses for over 20 years!

Why can't glasses treat keratoconus?

With glasses, you still have a blurry image because the light is still scattered when it passes through the cone.

With a soft contact lens, the lens drapes over the cone, which still is an irregular shape, so we still have blurred vision.

Rigid gas permeable contact lenses sit on top of the cornea and create a normal surface for light to go through. It is difficult to fit these contact lenses with the irregular corneal shape without having the lenses pop out with regular blinking or having them stuck onto the corneal surface, which can cause serious complications.

Have there been any recent developments in keratoconus treatment?

Recently, scleral contact lenses have been used to treat keratoconus. These gas permeable lenses are larger than soft contact lenses causing them to sit on the white part of the eye called the sclera instead of the cornea. This makes for a much more comfortable contact that doesn’t pop out when you blink. Ask us about scleral lenses —it is a time-intensive process, but the outcome is a comfortable contact lens with vastly improved vision.

What about younger people diagnosed with keratoconus?

For young people diagnosed with keratoconus, there is a surgical procedure called corneal x-linking. It helps to slow and/or stop the progression of the keratoconus. You may still need gas permeable contact lenses to see, but the keratoconus won’t worsen with time.