The conversation surrounding social media’s impact on beauty standards is well worn, but recently it has taken a latest turn – social media’s notable effect on cosmetic surgery, particularly that of the face. A recent study conducted by London-based cosmetic surgeon Dr Julian De Silva found that over the past two years there was a two year drop in the average age of those seeking facial surgery. The common age is now 37-years-old for ladies and 43-years-old for men. And according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 66,347 cosmetic surgical procedures were performed on people between the ages of 13 and 19 in 2016, a virtually 3% increase from 2015.

The decline in average cosmetic surgery age and the rise of adlescent surgery has been attributed to the impact of social media on millennials. “I believe social media has made me more aware of beauty standards and made me query myself”, says Alex, a 20-year-old who has never had cosmetic surgery, but is open to trying it. “It’s easy to feel that somebody on the market looks higher than you, and also you sort of get sucked into this dark hole whereby you compare yourself to others on Instagram.”

For Recent York-based surgeon Dr Norman Rowe, those under 25 currently make up 15% of his practice (which is up 10% from five years ago), and the youngest patient he has operated on was 15, who wanted rhinoplasty. He says the preferred surgeries for young persons are breast augmentations, liposuction and rhinoplasties, and it is generally girls that make up his patients, 4:1. Rowe believes social media has played a considerable part within the rise of young people wanting cosmetic surgery. “The recognition of celebrities, social media, and the variety of times we take pictures of and see ourselves on our phones and on media has led to our desire to vary things. (Young patients) are all the time showing me Instagram pages of individuals or celebs they wish to appear like.”

“It’s hard for people to inform what’s realistic and what isn’t,” says Nora Nugent, a BAAPS Council member. “Social media steadily shifts the perception of what normal is, because normal becomes glossy and photoshopped and wonderful. But once you meet people in point of fact, life isn’t quite like that and appearances aren’t quite like that.”

“The doctor had asked me what I wanted my nose to appear like, and I brought in a Snapchat version of myself with considered one of the pre-set filters” Marla

So far, Instagram has greater than 384 million #selfie posts, and this figure continues to extend day by day. With 18-34-year-olds accounting for 61% of Instagram’s users and 18-24 year-olds making up 77% Snapchat users within the UK, it isn’t any surprise that young persons are most vulnerable to the damaging effects selfie culture has on self-perception. A report by Nuffield Council on Bioethics suggested more frequent users of social media sites may indicate a rise in an individual’s investment of their appearance, and this will influence their desire to undergo cosmetic surgery.The report also claimed young girls are most targeted relating to the influence social media can have on their appearance, as unhappiness or dissatisfaction with appearance is more prone to be identified in young girls than boys. Nevertheless, as girls move through adolescence into maturity, they grow to be more satisfied with their bodies.  Meaning, although girls usually tend to be affected by ‘appearance anxieties’ at a young age, those anxieties will later subside. Nugent tells me most of her patients are girls, although there’s a gentle increase in men wanting aesthetic surgery.

The damaging effects of selfie culture is simply heightened by way of filtered images, which have been noted for his or her damaging effects on self-perceptions. The term ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ gained traction last yr when a 2017 report, published by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), stated 55% of facial plastic surgeons claimed patients have requested cosmetic procedures to look higher on social media – a rise of 13% from the yr before – due to the plethora of filters available on Snapchat. A report in the US medical journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery suggested that filtered images blur “the road of reality and fantasy” leading people to chase the fantasy they see of their phones through cosmetic surgery. The Instagram search #plasticsurgery has 2.1 million posts.

Marla, a 30-year-old from Recent York, who has had her breasts done in addition to having fillers in her lips and nose, began getting surgery two years ago after a relationship fell apart. “Your self-esteem is at an all-time low and also you’re desperately trying to find a method to reinvent yourself, and hair dye just wasn’t cutting it,” she says. Although social media wasn’t the direct reason behind her decision to get cosmetic surgery, it still played a task. “The doctor had asked me what I wanted my nose to appear like, and I brought in a Snapchat version of myself with considered one of the pre-set filters. It had slimmed the bridge of my nose, lifted the tip. It had made the whole lot only a bit smaller… I desired to appear like that each one the time,” she explains.

Despite Marla being an ‘open book’ relating to cosmetic surgery, believing there needs to be no shame in it, she still spoke of the damaging effects it might have on young people. “When you are young don’t get it,” she says. “Once I was younger I had really large eyes, my eyes had not grown into my face yet, I got called bug eyes. But now, as my face is changing and I’m older, I’ve come to like that feature. if I had gotten fillers in middle school and highschool it could have been an enormous mistake,” she explains.

“These are mostly irreversible cosmetic procedures, you could have to have a superb reason for doing them on a baby”

Although there isn’t any ‘right’ age for cosmetic surgery, it is usually agreed that individuals should wait until their mid-20s. Dr Rowe said potential patients should wait until “they’re emotionally mature enough to grasp what they’re asking for and why they’re asking for it.” He explained the importance of waiting on your face to completely develop before getting surgery – he said this happens at across the age 15/16 for a woman and 18 for a boy.

“These are mostly irreversible cosmetic procedures,” adds Nugent. “You’ve gotten to have a superb reason for doing them on someone who’s technically considered a baby, or a minor. They will not be benign procedures, they carry risk and complications … Parts of the body are still developing up until the age of 18, and even into the early 20s. When you start altering things surgically too young, potentially you possibly can cause more damage.”

Within the UK you generally cannot get cosmetic procedures should you are under 18. Within the US, there aren’t any specific laws stopping teenagers from getting cosmetic surgery; nevertheless, parental consent is required for patients under the age of 18.

As social media’s role in society continues to extend, so does our willingness to vary our real lives to profit our virtual ones. The rise in young people’s desire to undergo cosmetic surgery might be attributed to the mounting pressure to look good on sites equivalent to Instagram and Snapchat. But our desire for approval through a system of likes and retweets is having a potentially damaging effect on these sites youngest users.

Although social media might be used to share body positivity, it might also give room for insecurities to flourish. It’s the duty of social media platforms to take responsibility for his or her users, notably their most vulnerable ones. Although cosmetic surgery is a alternative, and one which may have many positive outcomes, young people should fastidiously consider their decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, by taking the time to grasp exactly why it is that they want it, and plastic surgeons must also reflect on this before accepting young patients. People should be happy to do what they wish to their very own bodies, nevertheless, there are steps that needs to be considered before going under the knife, equivalent to therapy which can assist young people cope with their insecurities at hand. In fact, there are legitimate reasons that will influence a youngster’s decision to undergo cosmetic surgery, nevertheless when the basis of the will is to look nearly as good because the people we see online, we allow fantasy to seep into the realms of reality in irreversible and harmful ways.