An ophthalmologist has caused a mini media storm by filming himself implanting a platinum piece of jewellery into a patient's eyeball.
According to The Mirror, Dr Emil Chynn filmed himself performing the procedure, which required the insertion of a 3mm-by-4mm-wide platinum heart into the patient's eyeball, at Park Avenue LASEK Surgery, New York.
The five-minute procedure is said to be rather pain-free and takes only three days to heal. After that, the patient can't feel the less-than-1mm thick jewel, as it is carefully smoothed, polished and curved to conform to the natural shape of the eye.
After prepping the patient, the doctor makes a 2mm wide incision which the jewel will slide into. Dr Chynn, who has 20 years of experience under his belt, insists the jewel is almost impossible to have an allergic reaction to, as the body is able to accept this medical-grade of metal.
The surgery offers different shapes of jewellery, such as hearts and stars, which can also be removed through a procedure that lasts around five minutes. According to Dr Chynn, "This is a purely cosmetic surgery. There are only two or three people in the whole of the United States of America that have undergone this. Eye jewellery was developed in Holland over a decade ago and has been successfully implanted into hundreds of patients' eyes in Europe without a single major complication or adverse event."
The American Academy of Ophthalmology says it does not have sufficient evidence to support the safety or therapeutic value of this procedure and urges consumers to avoid placing in the eye any foreign body or material that is not proven to be medically safe or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
