Filters can transform a person into an animal or a beautified
version of themselves. Bigger eyes, thinner face, thicker
lips. But plastic surgeons are finding that more people are
requesting to look better in their selfies or sometimes
request to look like filters seen on social media sites like
Snapchat. Twenty-one-year-old Jenelle Rosario is about to get
a non surgical procedure to fill her lips. She was inspired to
look like Kylie Jenner. "I did kind of do like to look good in
pictures just because I felt like when I smiled like my top
lip, like, kind of disappeared." This isn't Jenelle's first time,
she's had her lips filled once, before. This is Dr. Otto Placik,
a plastic surgeon whose been in the business for 23 years. His
name might not sound familiar, but you may be familiar with his
work. He was the plastic surgeon behind the real life Ken doll.
Jenelle lips is being injected by dissolvable fillers.
According to Dr. Pacik, the filler is slowly and naturally
metabolized by body. It lasts about 6 months. The whole
procedure lasts a good 20 minutes.
This is Jenelle's lips after an hour and a half.
"I definitely think if you're considering any cosmetic
surgery, you should maybe think about it, maybe wait, like about
a year. If you still want it, then maybe it's something that
like you really do want and will really make like a difference in
your life make you feel better." Dr Placik says he's seen a trend
in his patients. I would say at 100% patients come to me saying
I'm looking at my camera or my selfie, and I don't like my
double chin and we have new options for that. Now, in the
past, some of these procedures may have required major surgery.
As we've evolved as a field. Many of these changes can be
accomplished non surgically, and with considerably lower risk
than it was in the past. Physicians are finding that
selfies and filters can take a toll on a person's self esteem.
According to Dr. Neelam Vashi, Director of the Boston
University Cosmetic and Laser Center, Čćour society's
obsession with selfies and filters can lead to 'Snapchat
dysmorphia' or people wanting to get surgery to look like
filtered version of themselves. This is a very important and
alarming trend. I have seen this in my clinics over the past few
years. And the trend is increasing. A 2017 survey from
the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive
Surgery found that 55 percent of surgeons reported seeing
requests to improve selfie appearances. That number was
just 42 in 2015. 'Snapchat dysmorphia' is a part of body
dysmorphic disorder or BDD. BDD is mental disorder and is
defined as a preoccupation with a perceived body flaw so much so
that it interferes with day to day life. In this instance, Dr.
Placik gave us his medical assessment of what's possible.
No Filter and Filter. And clearly I look younger, and
arguably, most people would say better in this image. Now, what
can be achieved, my complexion was smoothed out. So I could
have laser hair removal on my face. Some of the lines are
softened. So I could have filler in my nasal folds achievable. My
eyes are made bigger that that's not achievable. The number one
danger is thinking that it's easy and risk free. BDD is
really tough to diagnose, is there a danger to do too much
surgery and how can you tell if someone has BDD? Sometimes, it's
not always detectable, you can do a very complicated test. But
the danger of not recognizing that you may have somebody who
is unhappy with surgery or continue to have repeated
surgeries in with one practitioner with other
practitioners. As a physician isn't it beneficial to do more
surgeries as a physician. Yeah its a financially incentive. The
obvious is I want to get paid for it. But I want a happy
patient, I want you to walk out of here and say he was honest
because you tell your friends. This doesn't mean that everyone
who uses Snapchat or filters needs psychological care. But
Dr. Vashi says physicians and patients need to pay attention
to the risks. I felt like a new person honestly, it makes me
feel good like fresh. Janelle doesn't have BDD. She doesn't
see herself getting surgery anytime soon. For now, she says
the lip augmentation will be her only procedure. Čć If you really
want to do it and if you're going to be confident after its
done then you should go for it.