A WOMAN has issued an urgent warning to anyone considering “insane” cosmetic surgery procedures after an op 10 years ago nearly caused her to go blind.
Dina Khalil is a model and content creator with 1.3 million followers on TikTok and a further million on Instagram.
TikToker and model Dina Khalil underwent surgery as a teen to change her eye colour[/caption]
Her eyes are naturally brown, but she had an iris implant to change them to blue[/caption]
Her piercing blue eyes are one of the unique features that have set her apart from the scores of other influencers posting on social media, but her striking look isn’t actually all natural.
As Dina. now 27, has claimed she was “tricked” into having an operation to change the colour of her eyes from brown to blue when she was a teenager.
She said that it was when she went into have laser surgery on her eyes that the doctor pitched an “amazing” operation – telling her it was “100 per cent safe” with “no risks and no side effects”.
And despite the fact that she was never unhappy with her natural brown eye colour, Dina found herself convinced when the doctor – in her home country of Egypt – suggested it.
“It’s so stupid when you look back and think about it – it’s insane,” she told the Daily Mail Online.
“I was a baby. I had never even thought of something like that!”
Dina claims she had no idea that her eye colour was going to be changed through an iris implant – as she had believed it would be done using “non-invasive lasers”.
And things initially went well, with Dina enjoying her new look until problems started to pop up around 10 years after the operation.
It started with redness and irritation, which she tried to combat using whitening eye drops, before she started to experience problems with her vision.
She alleges that she reached back out to the doctor in Egypt, who “ghosted” her, so asked for help from ophthalmologist Dr Seth D Potash.
Upon examining her, Dr Potash discovered that Dina not only had iris implants, but had also developed glaucoma.
And when measuring her eye health by checking numbers of corneal endothelial cells (ECD) and photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) in the retina, Dina was found to have a cell count of someone in their 60s or 70s.
She was warned that she could end up losing her sight for good if she didn’t take action, so travelled to Los Angeles for glaucoma surgery with ophthalmologist Dr Nicole Fram.
From that point, she underwent five separate operations to save her sight, and ended up regaining 20/20 vision in one of her eyes.
“They literally cannot believe how my eyes have healed,” she said.
“It’s a miracle.”
Are eyeball tattoos dangerous?
Eyeball tattooing is an incredibly dangerous and rare procedure.
It is unlike other tattoos because it involves injecting ink into the think layer of tissue that covers your eyeball.
The injected ink then spreads throughout the eyelid, however, there is a risk that it could spread beyond the injection sites, and cause permanent damage.
Eyeball tattooing has been banned or restricted in some countries, and many tattoo artists are uncomfortable with carrying out the procedure.
Dina still needs to have a corneal transplant in one of her eyes, and is hoping that her story acts as a warning to anyone considering such dangerous cosmetic surgery procedures.
Now, when she wants to change the colour of her eyes, she does so by using contact lenses.
“Don’t do any cosmetic surgery when you’re that young,” she concluded.
“You don’t need it. And don’t touch your eyes!”
