Cosmetic Iris Implants to Change Eye Color Are Harming People

Iris implants are not legal in the United States, or Canada, for that matter, but doctors in both countries are finding themselves having to deal with patients who have been injured by them. The health section of CBC News, a Canadian News organization is reporting that Canadian physicians have been seeing more and more patients that come to them after experiencing problems with iris implants. PubMed has also gotten into the act as well, publishing a paper by a team of ophthalmologists who have seen the problems first hand and have also done some investigating. They report that iris implants done in other countries such as Mexico and South America are not safe and that people should not have them done.

Iris implants are not exactly what they sound like, instead, they are semi-clear coverings (generally made of a type of hardened silicon similar to that used in breast implants) pasted over and sewn onto a person’s eyeball. The coverings mask the natural eye color, making it appear as if the person has changed eye color. The procedure has become increasingly popular for tourists seeking the newest and latest gimmick to change their appearance. The problem is, many of them are finding that the procedure is causing them eye problems.

In the CBC report for example, a woman had the procedure done in Panama, which cost her $8000. Several months later she began to experience eye pain so she went to an eye doctor who had to immediately remove the implants in order to save her vision. Despite such efforts, her vision has been damaged to the extent that she can now make out little more than blurry objects floating around in front of her, even with corrective lenses. And that may not be the end of her ordeal, she says the she’s already had to have two operations to relieve glaucoma caused by the implants and will likely have to have more over the next few years. She says the doctors in Panama should be jailed for what they did to her, and that the media needs to warn people about the procedure.

The rise in eye problems associated with iris implants should not be confused with such procedures that are used routinely to repair eyes damaged by blunt force trauma though, say doctors in a report from ABC News. In those cases, the natural iris has been damaged to such an extent that it needs to be removed altogether. To preserve the patient’s sight, medically approved implants are then sewn onto the eyeball to replace the one that was lost.


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