Selfies Driving Plastic Surgery Increase: Nurse Alice on NBCLA
Researchers from University of Texas Southwestern sought out to better understand how significant cell phone selfies distort photographs which can give users an inaccurate view of how they look thus contributing to some of the surge in cosmetic surgeries that has been occurring.
Nose reshaping has replaced breast augmentation as the #1 cosmetic surgical procedure. A total of 352,555 rhinoplasty procedures were performed in 2020, displacing breast augmentations as the top procedure — a title the surgery has held since 2006. The pandemic stirred a boom in facial procedures, elevating eyelid surgery (352,112), and facelifts (234,374) to the second and third most-performed procedures, with liposuction (211,067) and breast augmentation (193,073) rounding out last year’s top five cosmetic surgical procedures
Understanding the changes in facial features from a selfie is important not only in rhinoplasty but also in other facial procedures. The surgeon can have informed discussions with the patient based on selfies during preoperative and postoperative consultation if they understand the inherent distortions with selfies.
In the study selfie photographs displayed a narrower facial width in the which accentuated the size of the nose. The proportion of the length of the chin, relative to the length of the whole face, was smaller in the selfie photographs. These selfie photographs, with their ultrawide angle lenses and short camera-to-subject distances, create a distortion where features closer to the camera (e.g., the nose) seem larger. This study aimed to quantify this visual phenomenon, utilizing the ruler next to the participant to standardize measurements.
Nurse Alice is America's favorite nurse. She is a board certified cardiac clinical nurse specialist and family nurse practitioner, and television health expert. She has appeared on several national shows and networks including Dr. Oz, The Doctors, GMA3, Sister Circle, FOX, CNN, HLN, BNC, KTLA 5 Morning News and regularly on NBC4 Los Angeles.
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