Unflattering Angles Motivate Patients to Get Plastic Surgery
Who would’ve thought that Skype and FaceTime would create a plastic surgery boom? But, as more and more people are seeing themselves the way they really look, there has been an upswing in average people seeking plastic surgery. Take, for example, Triana Lavey, a 37 year old producer living in Los Angeles. She went to see Dr. Richard Ellenbogen of Beverly Hills to help her get a better online look. As an avid Facebook and Skype user, Lavey claims that she was disenchanted with how her face looked on the web.
Lots of people have seen their own reflection in the mirror but something magical, and sometimes scary happens when people see their faces for the first time the way the rest of the world sees them. Skype and Facebook have made it almost impossible for people to ignore their own appearance, in fact. And the social component of the online environment adds another facet that makes people more willing to go under the knife in order to achieve a more desirable appearance.
Plastic surgeons aren’t necessarily duped by what’s going on with new media. Patients arrive at their office thoroughly convinced that they need a new chin or a new nose when in fact, they just need to adjust the angle on their camera. While patients may feel strongly that their face needs some kind of work, the truth is, camera angles can have a strong impact on the appearance of different facial features. But the more people see their image online from that unflattering angle, the more convinced they become that something really needs to change.
Lavey, for example, admits that social media has altered our perception of ourselves. She says, “Ten years ago, I don’t think I even noticed that I had a weak chin.” But does she have a weak chin? If she never noticed it and was never bothered by it, then it’s possible that the problem is merely illusory, perhaps the result of those pesky camera angles. And if that’s the case, could the camera be adjusted, rather than the chin?
Lavey insisted that she tried different camera angles, but once she had seen the flaw, she just was never able to escape from it. She untagged herself from the photos she disliked of herself and tried to just get on with her life. But she wasn’t able to take her focus off of her weak chin once she realized it was there. And ultimately, this is the basis for the upswing in plastic surgery.
Though the camera angle can be changed, and people theoretically can move on with their lives and realize that what they’ve seen of themselves is perhaps nothing but an illusion or a delusion, it sticks. And the accessibility of plastic surgery may actually make it easier for people to “fix” the problem than to move on psychologically. It is, after all, much easier to brood over the flaws than to focus on what’s right about one’s facial features. Once a person has seen the flaw, it takes effort to ignore it. One can either expend effort to ignore the problem or spend some time and money getting it fixed. In the end, some people choose to get it fixed, which has ultimately created a higher demand for plastic surgery.
Unflattering Angles Motivate Patients to Get Plastic Surgery is a post from: Plastic Surgery News
