Beware Where Your Plastic Surgery Advice Comes From

Catie Keck, a Live Science Contributor, has good advice if you are anticipating having plastic surgery.  You can’t believe everything you read on the internet, and that especially goes for plastic surgery videos on YouTube.

These videos can be misleading forms of marketing and can offer very bad advice for people seeking legitimate information about these procedures.  The new study has been published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

This is the first kind of a study that was conducted by researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey who examined the digital-age trend of turning to YouTube videos for information about medical procedures.  They used 240 of YouTube’s most frequently watched videos on plastic surgery that had a combined 160 million views.  These pulled up by googling “increasingly common cosmetic procedures, face-lift, lip fillers, nose job, ear surgery and eyelid surgery.”

They then evaluated the videos for factual information and quality of the content using the DISCERN criteria which is a questionnaire evaluating the reliability and quality of consumer health information.  The presence of U.S. board-certified physicians and specialists on the YouTube videos were checked against the American Board of Medical Specialties database and the name of the person or group who posted the videos.

Their findings were startling.  Videos made to look like educational materials presented by medical professionals or specialists could be marketing schemes, according to study author Dr. Boris Paskhover, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical school.  They warn that those who use YouTube for educational purposes should be aware that the videos can present biased information.  Evaluating risks should be balanced versus benefits and be unclear about the qualifications of the practitioner.  Remember that YouTube is for marketing and the majority who post these videos are trying to sell something.

The new study found about 26% of the top Instagram posts were shared by cosmetic surgeons who weren’t themselves board certified in plastic surgery.  About 67% of that content was self marketing.

Dr. Clark Schierle is director of aesthetic surgery at Northwestern Specialists in Plastic Surgery in Chicago and the senior author who told Live Science that he had recently found an oral surgeon who had undergone additional training in cosmetic surgery, and the oral surgeon is doing breast implants.  Both of the studies emphasize the importance of using caution around videos on any topic, whether you are seeking information as a frequent social media user or a casual browser.  Do Your Research!!

Dr Fredda Branyon