‘There is no such thing as having too big lips for a woman.’ Last year, I attended a conference where a delegate from Beverly Hills lectured a room full of plastic surgeons and aestheticians, and my stomach dropped.
You might think this is unique to Los Angeles, but a quick browse through Instagram or a reality TV show will show you how widespread this mindset really is. When it comes to women’s faces, the trend has shifted from subtle, covert ‘tweaking’ to extreme, unnatural over-enhancement.
The recent Grammy Awards appearance by Madonna, in which she sported a disfigured face following plastic surgery, generated a lot of discussions. What worries me the most, though, is the number of young girls who are trying to emulate this style.
The question is why so many people under the age of 30 are blindly following a trend that makes them look ‘overdone’ at best and near-grotesque at worst.
Originally trained by Botox Training Miami, and over the course of twenty years, I have built a successful career as a cosmetic surgeon, giving me credibility and a stake in the game. I think it’s high time that experts voice their opinion that “this has crossed the line.”
Yes, medical professionals are accountable for their work. Why, then, do so few of us have the guts to say that whoever is undergoing these treatments bears some responsibility for the outcomes? They need to employ some basic logic if they care about their reputation.
About halfway through the 2010s, women started coming to me asking for a set of ‘Russian Lips’ that was extremely full and thick. What’s different now is how pervasive the ‘pumped-up’ style has become. It’s a goal that’s gotten eerily commonplace among people these days.
Patients used to go to great lengths to hide the fact that they had cosmetic procedures done, including Botox and fillers. This is now openly displayed.
Girls, even preteen girls, aspire to have full lips as a sign of femininity and sophistication, just like a designer handbag.
I’m curious as to whether or not these girls have any idea of their appearance in natural light, or if their lives are so reliant on social media and other online platforms that the only reflection of themselves they ever see is the one filtered heavily through their phones.
Don’t misunderstand me. What the tech industry has done for beauty is remarkable, and we in the cosmetics industry can only look on in awe.
In contrast to the decades it took us to figure out, online filters and app developers have already figured out how to make a person appear younger and more attractive.
To make oneself appear younger or sexier,’ all it takes now is a few mouse clicks. It’s easy to see why that could become addicting.
However, it is important to remember that these images are not real, and that dwelling on them increases the likelihood that you will be disillusioned when you finally look in a plain old mirror. When young women’s self-esteem drops, they are more likely to develop body dysmorphic disorder, a condition in which even the smallest perceived flaws in their appearance become the focus of excessive self-consciousness and preoccupation.
The issue is that by providing women with injectables like Botox, we have given them the means to magnify their insecurities. So many women come to me with the unrealistic expectation that I can “fix” their faces like a mobile phone app. It’s clear that their goal is to improve their emotional state from the outside in, but this is an impossible task.
Young women are increasingly requesting “preventative Botox” in addition to the big lips and slug-like brows that have become a popular aesthetic trend. Just how incredibly dense they are is beyond me.
If a 25-year-old gets Botox every two and a half months, she will lose muscle mass in her face and speed up the aging process, not slow it down. Her skin will become paper thin and her face will become gaunt as time goes on.
Botox can be an extremely effective method of delaying the effects of aging on the right face. However, the manner in which some younger women use injectables is akin to self-harm.
A new breed of “Injector Influencers” has emerged as a result of the popularity of reality television; these women have amassed hundreds of thousands of online followers by flaunting the results of their own plastic surgery.
Their success is predicated on portraying ever-increasing levels of physical superiority. That’s why the lip size keeps growing. An enlargement of the butt occurs. It’s insane.
Right now in the United States, young women who are already miserable can have virtually unlimited work done by people with no training or experience in the arts of aesthetics. Do we need government regulations to keep them safe from themselves?
Unfortunately, new laws won’t prevent incompetent doctors from secretly providing low-cost, unmonitored injections.
Even though I personally won’t perform cosmetic surgery on a woman in her twenties unless there is a clear medical necessity, I know that other doctors are less cautious.
The solution? Women should exercise extreme caution. Avoid using a practitioner who has been overdone to the point where they look strange.
And if their fillers and Botox cost half as much as they do at a reputable clinic, you should avoid them like the plague.
You will have more success as injector influencers if you listen to the advice of experts who can help you avoid an unnatural, overdone appearance.
Training in Botox and filler injections is now available for Dentists as well. Please visit https://dentox.com/botox-edu-news/botox-courses-dentists/ for more information about training courses.
By developing new skills that have a positive impact on your patients’ lives, you can help them feel, look, and see their best while moving Botox in the right direction.