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After the ‘Zoom Boom’, place to the ‘Selfie Boom’? Wanting to look better in their selfies, men and women are massively resorting to upper lip lifts, blepharoplasty and botulinum toxin injections. Booming aesthetic procedures, which do not prevent the youngest from eyeing procedures intended to embrace certain beauty standards of the 1990s.
Like every year at the same time, the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS*) lifts the veil on new trends in medicine and cosmetic surgery. With more than 2,200 members around the world – plastic surgeons and facial reconstructors – the academy has toured the cabinets to find out what could push the public to resort to such and such a procedure. After having turned to injections to no longer see their wrinkles in videoconferences, men and women now intend to retouch their faces to take beautiful selfies. The magic of new technologies.
No – or little – surgery for Z
As in 2021, cosmetic treatments and facial plastic surgery procedures increased in 2022, all age categories combined. According to the survey, 58% of AAFPRS members reported an increase in bookings and processing over the past year, and more than three-quarters of them report an increase of more than 10% in demand for this type of procedure. Women seem particularly fond of facial plastic surgery. The specialists interviewed indicate that most of their patients are women for sixteen of the eighteen procedures studied, with the exception of hair transplantation and otoplasty.
Another finding is that patients are now turning more to non-invasive procedures, in 82% of cases, and more particularly to neurotoxin injections, such as Botox, fillers, and topical products, such as chemical peels. . As you will have understood, preventing or fighting against the signs of aging is one of the priorities of men and women. If we are interested in surgical procedures, facelifts, blepharoplasties and rhinoplasties are the most popular. Rhinoplasty remains the most requested surgical intervention by patients under 34 years of age.
If we often speak of ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ to justify the boom of certain treatments among the youngest generations, it would in reality only be a decoy. “Gen Z’s influence in the aesthetics market is not yet generating leaps in the number of facial plastic surgery procedures – and that’s probably a good thing,” the report’s authors say. Still, nearly three-quarters of plastic surgeons surveyed mentioned an increase in the number of patients under the age of 30 for cosmetic surgery procedures and injectable products. However, these would essentially be acts of prevention of aging intended to avoid resorting to more cumbersome procedures in the future. It is finally between the ages of 35 and 55 that “the activity of surgical procedures increases significantly”.
The selfie, a new canon of beauty?
If in France, the ‘Zoom Boom’ did not take place, it seems that it is still relevant in other countries around the world. “In 2022, our members continued to see the impact of the ‘Zoom Boom’, with 79% of respondents naming the ‘Zoom Effect’ as a major contributing factor to patients’ desire for treatment,” says Dr Theda Kontis, president of the AAFPRS. But in general, the increase in procedures would also be due to an unexpected factor. Dr. Kontis talks about the money saved during the pandemic, which would now be used to afford cosmetic procedures.
In addition to the ‘Zoom Boom’, the advent of selfies is also believed to be behind the increase in certain treatments and procedures. The idea being for patients to improve their selfies, and make them even more ‘perfect’. More than three-quarters of facial plastic surgeons say looking better in selfies is clearly a rising trend. A finding that benefited the upper lip lift, practiced by at least 73% of AAFPRS members, up 3% compared to the year 2021. But also blepharoplasty, intended to correct drooping eyelids , which ranks second among the most requested procedures in 2022, just behind rhinoplasty.
The revival of the 1990s and 2000s, in both fashion and beauty, also had an impact on the choice of certain aesthetic procedures. The craze for refined and sculpted features, high cheekbones, and angular faces have boosted demand for bichectomy, or ‘fat buccal removal’, which involves removing or reducing Bichat’s ball, a fatty mass located on the center of the cheek. No less than 15% of the surgeons surveyed reported an increase in this intervention which is, it must be specified, definitive. A trend that runs counter to many surgeons who are more used to injecting fat into this area to allow middle-aged women to find more puffy cheeks.
“Bichectomy is not reversible. Even if you love the effect you get in your 20s and 30s, as you get older your face naturally loses fat, and therefore volume”, recalls Dr. Kontis. A warning for those who would consider rushing headlong towards this procedure to embrace the trends of the moment without thinking about the future. As such, another 20% of surgeons declare that their patients refer to celebrities during their consultations.
*The 2022 Annual AAFPRS Membership Survey was conducted in December 2022 by ACUPOLL Precision Research, Inc. through an online survey of a select group of the academy’s 2,200 members.