Doctors of the California based Strōma Medical Corporation have recently revealed a medical procedure, currently in trial, that can turn brown eyes blue.
Believed to be a mutation of the pigment of the human eye, blue eyes are an uncommon feature as noted in the Annual Human Biology journal, present in only 33.8% of the white population in the United States from 1936 to 1951.
Doctors of Strōma seek to give this eye color to all who seek it. Over a period of two to four weeks, this non-invasive procedure aims to reveal the blue pigment present in all eyes. From the website: “In the case of brown eyes… a thin layer of brown pigment covers the front surface of the iris (the colored part of the eye). The Strōma laser disrupts this layer of pigment, causing the body to initiate a natural and gradual tissue-removal process. Once the tissue is removed, the patient’s natural blue eye is revealed.”
The entire procedure reportedly takes less than a full minute, and patients need only sit through a low intensity laser session. There are currently no believed risks, and the change should be permanent.
For a purely cosmetic procedure that takes so little time, it is quite expensive at roughly $5000. It is understandable, however, because of the exotic appeal of the condition. This is not the only medical procedure that is purely cosmetic and equally (if not more) expensive; there are bleaches, face tucks, fat reduction, and bone reconstruction surgeries.
None of these are covered by insurance, except in some rare cases with Obamacare in assisting individuals going through gender reassignment surgery. That is how it should be, as not getting these procedures will not affect the quality of life of anyone, except through interactions with other people.
Cosmetic surgery, that is, surgery for the sole purpose of changing appearance and not improving the quality of life, should be kept off lists of things that insurance companies will cover. These medical procedures can actually be known to harm patients with almost no positive health effects.
For example, Botox injections are known to smooth out facial features and remove wrinkles. However, the unfortunate side effect of these painful injections are a loss of the ability to move facial muscles, resulting in many long time users’ static facial expression. So too with plastic surgery, excess skin and injections can actually remain in the face in later years, resulting in the bloated appearance of lips and an uneven wrinkle throughout the face.
Ultimately, in the future, you might be able to reconstruct your entire appearance, but it is likely to come at a cost that is both bodily and monetary. Cosmetic surgery may improve your self-esteem immediately after the surgery, but later in life it can require repeated visits in order to retain a normal appearance.
This is not the point of medicine; surgeries should purely be for the purpose of improving the functions of a body, and not replacing or reforming what already exists.
