Plastic Surgery and Social Media Bond

Social media is a controversial topic in today’s world. According to many people, social media is a blessing in disguise as it makes human interaction much more convenient in their hectic schedules. While for others, social media have destroyed real life human relationships. Nevertheless, social media has impacted everyone, and has become a powerful tool for businesses for all sizes to reach prospects and customers. It has changed the landscape of medicine and surgery and has become an expansive tool with seemingly endless implications for the modern surgery practice.

Over the years, it has become apparent that social media is influencing some major beauty trends and the way people see themselves. With an approximate 45% of the world population using social media along with an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes spent per day on social media, many surgeons have started using social media as a platform to create their base and develop their markets. According to a survey (Vardanian and Andrew 2013), most surgeons (64.4 percent) stated that social media had no impact on their practice, whereas 33.8 percent reported a positive impact and 1.5 percent reported a negative impact. This study depicts current patterns of social media use by plastic surgeon inclusive of motivation driving its implementation and impression on its impact.

Social media has provided a platform for interaction, allowing the prospective patients to better understand the treatments and choose a surgeon. Though social media have been mutually beneficial, however, impressions made online can be indelible. Surgeons need to protect their patient’s privacy, especially in plastic surgery, where before and after are critical marketing tools and at the same time need to ensure reliability.

The future bond of social media and plastic surgery looks promising as surgeons continue to advertise the public and target their population. Yet most plastic surgery sites are more static rather than interactive, at a time when modern consumers have grown to expect a high degree of online interactivity, still its role in plastic surgery development and communication has become more prominent and defined and hopefully will continue to.