A California doctor has developed a laser procedure that turns brown eyes to blue that an eye specialist warns may be risky.

Gregg Homer of Laguna Beach said his Lumineyes technique takes 20 seconds and works by permanently erasing the brown pigment or melanin in the surface of the iris. The blue color beneath the brown pigment will then gradually be exposed from two to three weeks.

Homer claims he perfected the technology for 10 years testing it in animals, cadavers and human participants in Mexico. His startup Stroma Medical Corporation will conduct the procedure after getting approval from U.S. health authorities. The laser treatment will cost at least $5,000, according to Discovery.com.

Homer said in an interview with Los Angeles new station KTLA-TV that Lumineyes causes no tissue damage. However, long-term side effects are unknown.

Dr. Robert Cykiert, associate professor of ophthalmology at New York University's Langone Medical Center warned that the procedure could cause glaucoma, an eye disorder affecting the optic nerve leading to damaged vision or blindness.

"When you burn the brown pigment away with a laser, the debris that is created in the front of the eye - think of it as ashes resulting from burning anything - is likely to clog up the microscopic channels in the front of the eye, known as trabecular meshwork. [It] is very likely to cause a high pressure in the eye, known as glaucoma," Cykiert said, according to ABC News.

Cykiert also claims that the burning of the brown pigment may cause inflammation that may damage the cornea leading to cataracts.

Homer said his eye color-changing laser procedure could be available outside the U.S. in 18 months and three years in the U.S.

But Dr. Ivan Schwab, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine and clinical correspondent at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, suggested that Homer conduct several long-term studies before offering the procedure to the public to know its consequences to patients.