For 33-year-old Rodrigo Alves, 57 cosmetic surgery procedures just isn’t enough. The man known around the world as the “human ken doll” is now planning his 58th surgery—a risky eye color change procedure that is not available in Europe or the United States. Alves spoke with the DailyMail about his plans to travel to India to permanently change his eye color to ice gray via a controversial eye surgery that use an artificial iris implant made of a thin, flexible, medical-grade silicone called BrightOcular.
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The implants are not FDA-approved, so many patients seeking the surgery travel to doctors in other countries like Egypt, Mexico, India and Lebanon. During the procedure, the surgeon inserts and unfolds the silicone implant inside the eye in front of the natural iris. Because the risky surgery is not approved in the U.S., all of the complications surrounding are not known, but they include infections, ocular hypertension, glaucoma, iris atrophy, displaced pupils and dry eye, among others. The surgery takes about 10 minutes per eye to complete and can cost anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000.
Alves plans on flying to Delhi next month and undergoing the procedure with a doctor who came recommended by three of his friends. “Three of my friends had the procedure done and it looks amazing. From the reference, I shall be visiting the same doctor in Delhi.”
The TV personality, who had his first surgery at age 17, says he’s doing it for convenience of not having to wear temporary contacts to enhance his appearance. “’My natural eye color is dark brown and I’m tired of wearing colored lenses,” he says. “’I wear hand painted colored lenses made by an artist here in the USA. Each pair costs $500 and I have 14 different colors.”
Although he is known for undergoing a massive amount of cosmetic treatments, including fillers, multiple rhinoplasties, liposuction, abdominal etching, chest implants and a hair transplant, Alves was unable to convince doctors in the U.S. and the U.K. to perform this surgery on him. “Some people who don’t have iris pigmentation can have these implants to give them an eye color. In my case, it is for aesthetics reasons and there is no money on earth that would convince an eye doctor to do it in the USA or UK for cosmetic reasons.”
