Plastic Surgeons Troubled by the Snapchat Dysmorphia Epidemic

In the coming years, plastic surgeons will have their hands full, but they are already dissatisfied with what awaits them. While ten years ago, teenagers brought photos of their favorite celebrities or perfectly photoshopped and symmetrical faces to consultations about plastic surgeries, these days they no longer come with such requests to the clinics. Now there is a mania where everyone wants to look like the filters provided by Snapchat, shares the frustrations of one plastic surgeon with Inverse.

The mania has even been named in these circles – Snapchat Dysmorphia. This disorder fits into a concerning spectrum of body dysmorphias, says Dr. Neelam Vashi, director of the Ethnic Skin Center at Boston Medical Center. She has observed this trend for years and finally published an article on the topic in the American Medical Association’s journal ‘Facial Plastic Surgery’ on Thursday.

– People bring their photos taken from certain angles or lighting. Many of them are unrealistic and set unattainable expectations for patients as they try to look like a ‘fantasized’ version of themselves, says Vashi, who explains that in such cases, the solution is not a surgical procedure, but psychological treatment.

Snapchat and Facetune set some new beauty standards that are unattainable in the real world.

One of the key characteristics of Snapchat Dysmorphia is the pursuit of perfection that cannot be achieved. This condition is a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder based on an obsession with flaws in the body. While some level of dissatisfaction with appearance is quite normal, people suffering from clinical body dysmorphia are consumed by these flaws and become insecure about themselves. Such individuals are the biggest victims of selfie filters that offer a glimpse of perfection. Once they see it, patients come to plastic surgeons with ideas for procedures that few surgeons would dare to perform, writes Vashi.

There is an increasing number of those seeking eye and lip augmentation, and symmetrical facial alignment characteristic of the ‘butterfly and crown flower filter’. While previously most requested surgeries were related to removing bumps on the nose, says the plastic surgeon.

It is concerning that the demand for such plastic surgeries is growing.

According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, as many as 55 percent of clinicians had patients in 2017 ‘who want to look better in selfies’, which is a 13 percent increase compared to 2016. The same report states that social media is a cultural force that has the power to change the plastic surgery industry.

Facial Symmetry as an Evolutionary Aspiration

The pursuit of facial symmetry is a phenomenon that has existed for a long time in human history, and some scientists have been studying it for decades. For instance, anthropologist Mark Shriver from Pennsylvania State University demonstrates in his research that people find symmetrical faces more attractive because it indicates that the person was immune to various diseases during the fetal stage, and he explains that the preference for facial symmetry likely exists because it reflects how a person develops from an embryo through cell division where symmetry reigns, if everything is fine with the fetus.

Of course, Shriver lives in our time, so he says that ancient humans may have sought companions based on facial symmetry because it indicated that she had a well-developed chromosome six responsible for developing genes that fight viruses and diseases, but today symmetry has remained merely a cosmetically desirable trait and has indeed become part of an obsession.

You can also take an online test that will tell you how symmetrical your face is and how you look.