Jason Jimenez had brown eyes when he walked into a New York clinic last month. When he emerged a few hours later, they were light gray.
The 39-year-old real-estate agent is among a growing number of people who have permanently changed their eye color through cosmetic surgery. Many doctors say the surgery hasn’t been proven safe and warn it could cause lasting damage.
Some people getting the procedure say they want to look better and feel more confident. Others did it to look more like family members. One young man changed one of his brown eyes blue to copy the mismatched eyes of his beloved Siberian husky.
To lighten Jimenez’s eyes, Dr. Alexander Movshovich used a laser to cut donut-like tunnels into his corneas, the clear outermost layer. The surgeon used a tool to widen the tunnels before filling them with dye. The procedure, known as keratopigmentation or corneal tattooing, was completed in about a half-hour. The effect was immediate.
“I see it as an enhancement,” said Jimenez, who lives in New Jersey. “People get their teeth done, they get implants and Botox. If it’s something that could make you happier, make you look better—then why not?”
Movshovich is among a few U.S. doctors who offer the procedure. The garrulous ophthalmologist, who emigrated from Russia, was the first doctor in the U.S. to offer keratopigmentation for nonmedical reasons. Movshovich opened his clinic Kerato in Midtown Manhattan in 2019.
“People said I was crazy. But in Russia, they say if you’re not brave, you don’t drink Champagne,” he said.
He treated about 15 keratopigmentation patients in the first year. This year, he is on track to treat some 400 people, he said. He charges $12,000 per surgery. It isn’t covered by insurance.
Keratopigmentation has a long history. Galen, a Greek physician who lived some 2,000 years ago, treated people with cloudy corneas by burning the surface of their eyes before applying a variety of pigments including crushed pomegranate bark.
Doctors still use keratopigmentation to treat people with diseased or injured eyes. It can give patients with cloudy corneas caused by infections or trauma the appearance of an iris, the colored part of the eye.
It can also help reduce debilitating glare caused by iris or corneal damage, said Dr. Roberto Pineda, an ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear who has performed medical keratopigmentation for almost 30 years.
In the 2010s, doctors in Europe began experimenting with the procedure for cosmetic reasons. Many eye specialists say it is irresponsible for doctors to perform keratopigmentation on people with healthy eyes.
The benefits might outweigh the risks for patients with diseased corneas, but there isn’t enough evidence to say the same for healthy people, critics say. “I’m very surprised that these surgeons are doing this in the United States. They are taking a risk,” said Dr. Guillermo Amescua, an ophthalmology professor at the University of Miami. (READ MORE)
