While the COVID-19 Pandemic has fully interrupted the world and the way we live our lives, it has also created interesting shifts and problems to our ways of living. We have seen business thrive and succeed on solely working from home and Zoom meetings when before we thought it would diminish productivity. With the increased use of Zoom meetings, many people are increasing the amount of time that they look at their appearance and that is causing major problems. The angles, the asymmetry of facial features, and increased attention to our aging selves has caused a spike in plastic surgery that Dr. Maryam Zamani is calling the “lockdown meltdown.”
Dr. Zamani is based in the UK and have received many calls from patients who were so distressed during lockdown that they purchased and injected their own fillers during the time that many clinics were closed. The patients adversely hit blood vessels and had to be seen by her to correct the issue or else the skin tissue could have died. Many others complained that they have aged more in the months of lockdown and felt their “faces were falling.”
Botox can last anywhere from 3-4 months, and facial fillers can last 6-18 months depending on where it is injected. However, the increased attention on appearance led patients to illegal and unsafe practices during these times. Another facility saw 80 complaints of people who had received botched and illicit procedures during quarantine. Many of them resulted in many adverse effects such as uneven lips, bad product, and extreme bruising. As months dragged on, some patients tried to bribe some injectors.
The small anxieties of staring at your face everyday become obsessive and have resulted in many clinics being busier than ever in these past couple of months. Our world was moving on from Snapchat Dysmorphia to Zoom Panic. “The features that are closest to the camera are more disproportionately shown. If you have a hook or bump on your nose you become much more aware of it,” he said.
Other individuals are utilizing the stay at home orders and benefiting from not going out to eat and spending money on cosmetic procedures. They have the ease of wearing a mask to hide their nose jobs, and the ease of recovering at home for procedures such as breast implants without asking for time off from work.
Dr. Deepak Dugar has never been busier, even with a drop off in his international patients. He mentioned that the increase is with adult patients, “people can work from home with their bandage on and no longer have to schedule their appointment, they can come in whenever they want.”
Have you seen yourself be negatively affected by these changes? Are you more aware of your nasal hump, maybe wrinkles around your eyes? If so, you are clearly not alone! If you are wanting to make a change, you may email info(at)scarlessnose(dotted)com for more information or make a consultation at www.scarlessnose.com,
