Social media filters can do just about anything these days. In fact, they can completely alter the way you look. And while editing apps may initially seem harmless, the trend to attain these filtered looks in real life too is only growing. In the UAE, cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures are surging, and patients are only getting younger.
In a recent interview on the AB Majlis podcast, leading plastic surgeon Dr. Dirk Kremer revealed that for the first time in his 20-year career, the average age of his female patients has dropped below 40.
Known for his signature “turn-back-time” facelifts, Dr. Kremer is now seeing a surge of women in their early 20s and even late teens walking through his doors seeking tweaks and alterations, a trend has risen sharply over the past five years.
“Young people come into the office, and they no longer show us a photo of a magazine film star or a supermodel, they show us their idealised photo, which of course, they have edited with these apps” he said.
Dr. Kremer, who has clinics in London and Dubai, calls it “social media poison” – the outcome from spending too much time on platforms like Instagram and TikTok that are flooded with fake and edited photos. Today, editing apps such as FaceTune and FaceApp export over a million edited images daily, leaving many users disconnected from their self-augmented selves. Research shows 50 percent of girls believe they aren’t pretty without some form of photo editing. At its most extreme, these face-altering filters can promote the idea that cosmetic surgery is the only solution for matching one’s real face to an idealised, filtered online version.
“There are so many options on these apps, and a lot of things are totally unrealistic. You can’t make your eyes further apart. You can’t make them closer together. It’s developed a frenzy of: what can I do next?”
Many plastic surgeons, such as Dr. Kremer, are often caught between patients seeking unrealistic changes based on filters, and ethical concerns over operating on teens and young adults who may not fully grasp the risks and consequences involved with permanent surgical alterations.
“We know that the brain is not fully developed till you are 21, and especially the part of the brain that makes reasonable decisions. So I’m very hesitant even to do bigger surgeries on people under 21. You must question them several times and be sure what they want,” Dr. Kremer shared.
“Young women in their late teens and early 20s undergoing cosmetic procedures don’t realise that they already have what older women envy – the natural radiance and glow of youth. As we age, that freshness fades. But these youngsters are erasing their natural beauty with fillers, Botox and other treatments, creating a distorted, artificial look.”
Instead, Dr. Kremer advocates for gentle, natural looking procedures and lifestyle habits like applying daily sun protection and incorporating anti-aging skincare to maintain one’s looks without drastic fixes.
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