Would you ever undergo plastic surgery to change your eye color? A company named Stroma Medical says yes. Time reports that the company claims they’ve perfected a laser procedure to turn brown eyes blue. Stroma is now hoping to bring the $5,000 surgery into the United States.
Thirty-seven patients in Mexico and Costa Rica have already changed the tint of their irises as a result of the surgery. Of course, American regulators need to okay the procedure first. But if the surgery does make it to the United States, can’t you just see someone like Kim Kardashian lining up to turn her famous brown eyes into baby blues?
Company chairman Gregg Homer says the procedure works by disturbing the thin layer of pigment that exists on the surfaces of all brown irises. As Homer told CNN, “The fundamental principle is that under every brown eye is a blue eye. If you take that pigment away, then the light can enter the stroma—the little fibers that look like bicycle spokes in a light eye—and when the light scatters it only reflects back the shortest wavelengths and that’s the blue end of the spectrum.”
Stroma claims the surgery is safe, although one opthamologist who spoke with CNN says that that the shedding of pigment could clog up drainage channels in the eye, leading to increased pressure and potential glaucoma.
There’s a cultural factor at play here as well. Western civilization has done enough favoring of those with light eyes. Do we really need to revisit that old stereotype? If the procedure does end up coming to the United States, let’s hope it’s way less popular than the butt augmentation.
READ MORE: Plastic Surgery – Is It Right For You?
