In the blink of an eye, a permanent twinkle

The newest fad in body adornment is certainly eye-catching.

But does it cross a line when it comes to safety?

Eye jewelry, a tiny piece of platinum or gold that is surgically implanted behind the clear skin in the white part of the eye, is being offered for the first time in the United States by Los Angeles eye surgeon Robert K. Maloney.

While eye jewelry will surely appeal to some members of the ultrachic set -- Maloney has performed one surgery and has fielded calls from a few curious others -- some eye doctors question the value of a surgically embedded twinkle with a $3,900 price tag.

“Usually you are doing eye implants for a medical reason. This is cosmetic,” says Dr. James Salz, a spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and a clinical professor at USC. “It’s amazing to me that people want to do this. But when you see people with all these body piercings and tattoos, you realize they may go for this too.”

The procedure was invented by a Dutch eye surgeon, who calls his patented product JewelEye, and was introduced in Europe earlier this year. About 50 people have received implants worldwide, says Maloney, director of the Maloney Vision Institute. No formal studies have been performed on the safety of eye jewelry.

“I thought it was a really clever idea, and it was clear to me that it ought to be very safe,” says Maloney, who is marketing the service on the institute’s website while touting his role as an “Extreme Makeover” surgeon on the popular TV show. “I believe eye jewelry is safer than wearing colored contact lenses, which are also worn for cosmetic reasons.”

The first person to receive an eye jewel in this country, according to Maloney, was Island Allman of San Francisco, who says she was aware of the potential risks but thought the idea was too cool to pass up.

“It makes me even more unique,” says Allman, 23, who had a platinum heart inserted on the outer part of her left eye last month. “I know that doing anything new and unexplored is taking a risk. But I’m a risk-taker, and I like to be the first.”

Implanting eye jewelry takes just a few minutes, Maloney says. After a vision exam, the patient’s eye is numbed with drops. A tiny incision is made in the conjunctiva, the thin, clear membrane that covers the white part of the eye. The jewelry is so tiny -- 0.13 of an inch -- it can’t be inserted with an instrument. Instead, Maloney says he floats it on a drop of water into a spot in the conjunctiva. The eye heals in about two weeks, he says.

“It was very quick; it took about three minutes,” says Allman, a psychology student at Dominican University of California in San Rafael. “The incision was a little bit sensitive for a few days.” Her eye remained red for about two weeks, she says.

You may have to look closely to spot the eye jewelry.

“It’s subtle,” Maloney says. “When the person is looking straight ahead, the jewel is in the corner and you don’t see it.” But when the person looks to the side, “it’s kind of a surprise. It truly is a twinkle.”

Allman says only two people have noticed the platinum heart. One was her doctor, who was dumbstruck.

“I went to get a physical before school started and my doctor said, ‘Oh, my goodness, what is this in your eye?’ ” says Allman, with a chuckle. “She said, ‘I think I have to add this to your medical records.’ She just couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know what to think.”

While there are potential risks, such as infection, extrusion (the eye rejects the implant and pushes it out) and migration of the jewel to another part of the eye, Maloney says he believes the potential dangers are minimal.

“When people ask about this, they think of eye piercing,” he says. “They imagine a piece of jewelry piercing the eye and hanging out. This is so light. You don’t even feel it when you blink. It’s under the skin of the eye.”

Doctors have long placed implants in the retina to treat various eye diseases, says Maloney, who is well-known for his vision-correction surgery and as one of the doctors who helped to pioneer Lasik eye surgery. That experience suggests that eye jewelry, which isn’t placed in the sensitive center of eye, should be safe, he says.

“Retinal implants are huge implants,” Maloney says. “Those are much more likely to dislodge or erode because they’re bulky. But those implants have turned out to be very safe.”

Salz agrees that the risk of a serious problem from eye jewelry is minimal. Eye jewelry can be surgically removed in a simple procedure.

“Platinum is an inert metal. There is a slim chance of the body rejecting it,” he says. “Infection is a risk, although it’s minimal. It’s unlikely an infection would lead to serious damage. If you get an infection on the cornea from a contact lens, that is potentially more serious.”

It’s unclear whether safety concerns will prompt the Food and Drug Administration to regulate eye jewelry as cosmetic devices, Maloney says.

Regulatory action may depend on how far the trend goes. While JewelEye offers hearts, half-moons and stars in platinum, implants can be created in gold and in custom designs. “We could do corporate logos,” Maloney says. “We could do a Nike swoosh. We could put in a diamond or ruby. The question now is, where do we go from here?”