It’s not a surprising trend: the continued decline of surgical facelifts. These procedures continue to drop in popularity for many reasons. They are expensive. They are painful, risky, and hard to recover from. They can leave scars.
But the new trend is a bit surprising for the reason why it’s taking such a sharp downturn. The British Association of Aesthetics Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) blames the current trend on photo filters. But before you decide that Facetune or Slim & Skinny are the secret to looking younger, consider these limits to what your photo filter can do. A nonsurgical facelift is a great way to overcome these limitations without the problems of a surgical facelift.
The Effect Can Look Fake
Photo filters can do many things. They can erase wrinkles, smooth the skin, add glow, eliminate double chin, and more. But they don’t always work as well as we would like. We’ve all seen the pictures where it goes wrong–there are so many celebrity examples of photoshop fail that it’s hardly even noticed anymore.
But it’s embarrassing when it happens to you. You post a picture of yourself, edited to make you look 10 or 15 years younger, only the light on your face is somehow different from the light in the rest of the picture. Or the area around your chin is distorted. And then everyone knows how hard you’re trying (and failing) to look younger.
What about the Pictures Others Take?
Photo filters can give you complete control over your selfies, but you’re not the only one with a camera. And not everyone is going to take the time to edit your pictures before posting them.
Sure, you could always go back to dodging cameras, but think about the number of cameras at your last girls’ night out and you realize you’d have to spend so much time dodging the cameras that you wouldn’t have any time for taking fun or even for taking your own pictures.
It Doesn’t Help in Person
Photo filters can be great for editing your face online. And this is a huge part of our social interactions these days. Your social media friends and followers will typically see much more of you than those you meet in person.
But there are still going to be many people you meet in person, and that’s when your photo filters will fail you. It’s worse because these FTF encounters are likely the most important to you: a new romance, a job interview, or public speaking will all put you in the spotlight IRL.
The Disparity Can Be Jarring
Your photo filters can make that FTF encounter harder, too. These days many of our first impressions happen online, and first impressions are important. But if you meet in person and you don’t look like your profile pic or your latest selfies, people can come away from that meeting with a bad feeling.
That can make it hard to establish good relationships with people offline.
You Can Feel Bad because Your Reality Falls Short
But it’s not just other people who will notice the disparity between your online pics and your in-person appearance. You will notice it, too.
Far from making you feel better, the repeated ritual of erasing all the features you don’t like calls your attention to those features even more. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you’ll be made even more aware of them. Your own pictures become an unrealistic standard that you hold yourself to and constantly fall short of.
It Won’t Fix Your Teeth
We don’t mean you can’t fix your teeth in the pictures. That you can certainly do. There are editors to whiten and straighten your teeth.
But it won’t help if your teeth are actually decayed, chipped, cracked, or worn. They won’t stop the discomfort from sensitive teeth. They won’t make it easier to eat. And they won’t help you avoid the complications of unhealthy teeth, such as heart disease, pneumonia, or dementia.
It Won’t Help Your Jaw
For many people, unhealthy teeth and a collapsing profile are related to a bad bite. And the effects of a bad bite can extend beyond your teeth through temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ or TMD).
You may experience regular headaches, jaw pain, neck pain, and more because your teeth aren’t holding your jaw in a proper position for healthy function.
Rejuvenation without Surgery
We understand why you wouldn’t want to get facelift surgery. But there are also many reasons why you can’t just rely on a photo filter to rejuvenate your appearance. If you’re tired of the constant grind of editing every picture. If you want to really look younger and more vibrant. Or if you are having problems with your teeth and jaw, a nonsurgical facelift can help.
To learn whether a nonsurgical facelift is right for you, please call (843) 706-2999 today for an appointment with a Hilton Head cosmetic dentist at Beyond Exceptional Dentistry.
