Il 73% of the Italian teenagers admitted to having undergone some form of aesthetic intervention. Treatments ofacne, removal of unwanted hair or of stretch markstreatments anti-cellulite or to flesh out liprhinoplasty, aesthetic correction of ears and mammoplasty the most requested interventions.
It was discussed at the convention Hair&Nail and Anti-Agingpromoted and chaired by Prof.ssa Gabriella Fabbrocinidirector of the UOC of Clinical Dermatology of the Federico II University of Naples, and by Prof.ssa Antonella TostiFull Professor in the Department of Dermatology Leonard Miller School of Medicine University in Miami.
“Aesthetic treatments are certainly not new – explains Prof. Gabriella Fabbrocini – but if before they represented a resource for the more adult population who wanted to appear younger and for those who wanted to correct their physical defects, sometimes conditioning ones, to feel better about themselves, today more and more young people and especially the very young teenagers, they want to feel in step with the Instagram look, homologating to their peers and to an aesthetic ideal standardized by social media “.
According to experts, the overall improvement in economic, social and cultural conditions, together with simplification and greater accessibility, contribute to making the possibility of aesthetic treatment more widespread even among the very young. To this is added, especially for the younger ones, theidealization of beauty and the widespread belief that success in life is somehow intertwined with physical attributes.
«In the era of social networks like Instagram and TikTok – explains Prof. Fabbrocini – image is everything for many young people. Teens share their lives online, consciously or unconsciously looking for confirmation from “Like”. One of the primary reasons for patients seeking cosmetic surgery is the desire to look better in photographs. More and more teenagers want plump lips and sharper cheekbones, in search of the perfect selfie (about 34 billion are taken in a year) ».
On the other hand, it is important to consider the procedures of aesthetic interventions performed in the interest of health andpsychological balance of the adolescent patient. The presence of an objective physical defect or deformity, for example, that causes psychological distress and negatively affects social life. In general, aesthetic interventions can be recommended, always carried out with the utmost caution and proportionalityto those psychologically healthy adolescents, who have realistic expectations and whose dissatisfaction derives from a part of the body that needs a correction.
On the other hand, all procedures aimed at achieving ideal beauty, altering one’s ethnic traits which can subsequently cause real identity crisis.
Danger of body dysmorphism
The risk of overuse of corrective surgery is high for those suffering from body dysmorphic disorder. Adolescents suffering from this pathology have normal physical traits or small defects, which tend to amplify due to an altered perception of themselves, feeling a strong sense of embarrassment with others so as to avoid situations that involve direct social contacts such as school and relationships. By resorting to surgery, those suffering from this disorder can trigger a snowball effect, because no intervention would ever be satisfactory, as the problem is emotional and psychological rather than physicaland should be addressed in psychotherapy.