News
Industry News
‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ is the
beauty social media trend of 2018
that has doctors concerned
T he rise of the mental health is becoming a frequent
word for plastic surgeons on both sides of the Atlan-
tic. Celebrities regularly use playful filters on social
media. From low self esteem to a lack of human con-
nection, doctors have been worrying about the rela-
tionship between social media and mental health for
80
C O S M O B I Z M A G A Z I N E
a while now. Researches are now raising awareness
of ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’ - a term originally coined
by celebrity cosmetics surgeon Dr. Tijion Esho in April
2018 - to describe the idea of consumers seeking
surgery to look more like the filtered version of them-
selves. According to a new study published by ac-
ademics from the Boston Medical Center, thanks to
photo-editing like Snapchat and Facetune, the level
of physical ‘perfection’ previously seen only on ce-
lebrities or in beauty magazines has now become the
norm on social media. “Filtered selfies can make peo-
ple lose touch with reality, creating the expectation
that we are supposed to look perfectly primped all the
time,” said Dr Neelam Vashi, director of the Ethnic
Skin Center at BMC and Boston University School of
Medicine. “This can be especially harmful for teens
and those with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and
it is important for providers to understand the impli-
cations of social media on body image to better treat
and counsel our patients.” BDD, or body dysmorphia,
is closely related to obsessive-compulsive disorder,
where a person is excessively preoccupied with a
perceived flaw in appearance.