A doctor in the US is currently developing technology to remove the pigment from people's eyes in a purportedly safe and painless laser procedure that takes just 20 seconds.
Dr Gregg Homer of Stroma Medical in California told KTLA this week he can permanently change brown eyes to blue using "A laser that's tuned to a specific frequency to remove the pigment from the surface of the iris."
The laser changes the melanin (pigment tissue) in the irises of brown-eyed people, which the body sheds in two to three weeks, leaving only the blue pigments behind.
Dr Homer claims the procedure, which costs US$5000, does not affect a patient's eyesight and that preliminary tests have shown no lasting tissue damage is caused.
But a spokesman for the American College of Ophthalmology told CBS that the pigment released by the surgery "has to go somewhere," and that chronic seepage of melanin into the fluid in the eye is associated with a potentially blinding condition known as pigmentary glaucoma.
More testing is expected to be carried out by Dr Homer, who anticipates that the technique will be available outside of the US in 18 months and within the US in three years.
The cosmetic procedure will be a more permanent solution to wearing coloured contact lenses which carry the risk of infection, with hundreds of people already expressing their interest.
"The eyes are the windows to the soul," says Dr Homer.
"A blue eye is not opaque, you can see deeply into it, and a brown eye is very opaque. I think there is something very meaningful about this idea of having open windows to the soul."
So, now apparently you can change the colour of your eyes. Now tell us below if you would do it?
Home