A US DOCTOR has claimed that he has developed technology to turn brown eyes blue – permanently.

Dr Gregg Homer, of Laguna Beach in California, say that he has been working on the technique for more than a decade.

If you’re blue-eyed and fancy some chocolate-coloured peepers you’re out of luck however – the process works only one way; this is because all brown eyes are actually blue underneath the top layer of darker pigment, Homer says.

He says the treatment involves using a laser light to remove the brown layer of pigment on the surface of the iris. The process itself takes just 20 seconds, and the darker pigment gradually disintegrates over the next three weeks or so, eventually revealing blue eyes KTLA.com reports.

The process is irreversible.

Homer says that while there has been no evidence of tissue damage from the procedure to date, further clinical trials lasting 18 months will need to be completed before it can be given the green light.

Other experts have urged caution, warning that the iris can be damaged if too much light is allowed to penetrate it. This could lead to sight difficulties, Larry Benjamin, consultant eye surgeon at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in the UK, told the BBC.

The BBC goes on to report that Homer, orignially an entertainment lawyer, began studying biology in the mid-1990s. He began testing on animals in 2004 and then experimented with cadavers.

In August last year, Homer began tests on live patients in Mexico. Seventeen people have undergone the treatment so far.

The New York Daily News reports that Homer is fully confident that he will secure FDA approval within the next three years.

While the technique is still in the test stages, we’re curious – would you want to permanently change your eye colour, if you could be guaranteed the procedure was safe?