Most cosmetic procedures can leave you feeling more confident about your appearance, but this is one surgery that could ultimately end up leaving you with poor eye health. Buzz about cosmetic eye color surgery has been growing, most prominently at the end of last year when Victoria’s Secret model Jessica White took to her social media channels to show off her new eye color. Her previously brown eyes were now hazel after undergoing keratopigmentation, a process that involves using lasers to insert dye into the corneas, so they mask the natural color of the eye’s irises. The process has sometimes been referred to as “corneal tattooing.”
What doctors are performing this kind of procedure? The first keratopigmentation practice in the country, KERATO, is based in New York City, and its owner Dr. Alexander Movshovich has garnered a widespread following on TikTok of people who are fascinated by the prospect of the cosmetic surgery trend. Although the procedure isn’t approved by the Food and Drug Administration for safety or effectiveness, most health experts look to it as being safer than other forms of eye color surgery, such as iris implants, in which a doctor cuts a small slit in the cornea to insert an artificial silicone iris. Iris implants are illegal and considered to be malpractice in the United States, although some patients do travel abroad to seek the procedure. Organizations including the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Glaucoma Society warn not to undergo iris implant surgery, as it can end up doing severe damage to the eyes.
The biggest concern some eye health experts have is that very few people need to change their eye color, making any procedure a risky endeavor for minimal reward. A small percentage of patients may need their eye color changed because of eye injury or eye disease, such as ocular albinism. But generally speaking, if you’re looking to change your eye color, the safest and easiest option is to use colored contact lenses, which is a low-cost, temporary (i.e. reversible) method.
