This new trend is the effect of Snapchat and Instagram in our society

Snapchat is an application that, among other features, has the ability to take selfies and apply filters. With light modifications and subtle facial changes such as nose reduction, lip and cheek augmentation, larger eyes and face symmetry, these filters make us look "better", at least in photos.

Leer en español: Cirugía plástica: cuando los filtros pasan de la selfie a la vida real

People have started to resort to plastic surgery to look like their selfies with filters. This phenomenon is known as "Snapchat dysmorphia", a term coined by the British surgeon Tijion Esho, who used the name after observing an increase in the flow of clients who came to his office with the aim of retouching their face to resemble more their Snapchat version. The phenomenon, which could be defined as 'photographic surgery', had been exclusive to the virtual world, but now it is giving way to a wave of young women who make frequent aesthetic touches in order to resemble a little more to their own reflection with filters .

More realistic results

The tendency to perform aesthetic procedures to look more like 'themselves' is a phenomenon that is mainly observed in the United Kingdom and the USA. For some surgeons, this fact allows better practices and more realistic expectations, since patients stop waiting for results from outside to concentrate on their own physical characteristics.

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In most aesthetic interventions based on selfies, specialists perform facial fillers, cheek delineations and rhinoplasty. However, some details of the filters surgically cannot yet be achieved.

According to a study by the American Academy of Facial Surgery cited in the BBC, 55% of facial plastic surgeons treated in 2017 patients who wanted to have surgery to look better in selfies, compared to only 13% in 2013. 56% of surgeons surveyed noticed an increase in the number of patients under 30 years.

Figures collected by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), indicate that on average each year increases by 9% plastic surgery practices around the world. Latin America has become in recent years an aesthetic epicenter thanks to the low prices of procedures and good quality standards. However, to date there are no official data that can confirm an increase in aesthetic procedures based on selfies.

Latin American Post | Krishna Jaramillo
Translated from “ Cirugía plástica: cuando los filtros pasan de la selfie a la vida real”