AN EYE ON THE FUTURE

When Eric Drey was in the fourth grade, he was given an assignment to say what he wanted to be when he grew up.

“My mom recently showed me this paper and I said that I wanted to be an optometrist,” the now Dr. Drey, a Doctor of Optometry says. “I still can’t believe I knew what that was.”

However, as an adult looking back, he understands why he chose such a specific medical field. When Dr. Drey was 5 years old, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

“Getting diagnosed with diabetes is one of my first real childhood memories,” he says. “I spent a lot time going to see the endocrinologist and the optometrist. I think it just sunk in at some level that someday I wanted to take care of patients the way I was cared for.”

Dr. Drey graduated from the University of Iowa and earned his Doctor of Optometry Degree at the Illinois College of Optometry. He has a post-doctorate residency certification in primary care and ocular disease from the Illinois College of Optometry/Illinois Eye Institute.

“I opened my first office near Willis Tower in Chicago eight years ago,” he says. “Moving to Lake Bluff in 2020 with our young family made the idea of opening a second office not far from our home very appealing.”

With his father as his general contractor, he built out his office space for Lake Forest Family Eyecare just a few doors down from Sunset Foods. The space is light, bright, modern, and welcoming—everything he had hoped it would be.

“When my dad built our house in Lake Bluff, I thought that was the last big project I would talk him into,” he says. “I was happy he was on board to help me with my office, too.”

Dr. Drey is equipped to handle every eyecare need (eyeglasses, contacts, eye infections, etc.) just short of having surgery. “I made the conscious decision to invest in having all the machinery I need on-site to help manage any eye issues. I like being able to offer that instead of having to refer you to another specialist.”

In addition to helping with eye problems resulting from diabetes, Dr. Drey is also working with patients with myopia.

“Myopia, or nearsightedness, is when close-up objects look clear but distant objects are blurry,” he says. “This has become an epidemic worldwide. In my generation, we see about 20-25 percent of people who are nearsighted. Experts are predicting that by 2050, 50 percent of the population will be nearsighted. This will happen from so much screen time and people not being outdoors enough. There are now some treatments available that can help reduce or control the progression of nearsightedness when you catch it early in children. When we do catch it early, we can reduce nearsighted progression by 65 percent.”

If you have a rising kindergartener, Dr. Drey encourages you to make an appointment for your child.

“It’s state law that kindergartners have an eye exam with eye dilation before they start school. The nice part of doing this is that we can catch things like lazy eye and intervene with the appropriate treatments.”

To learn more about Dr. Drey or to make an appointment, visit lakeforestfamilyeyecare.com.