What To Look For In A “Before and After” Photo Gallery
While looking through a plastic surgeon's photo gallery, please use these tips for accurate assessment of their surgical skills and patient results:
Images should allow you to see the patient's face, breasts, or body from multiple angles, ensuring results are not acceptable from just one point of view.
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Ensure you are actually seeing that surgeon’s work – not stock photos or stolen images pulled off the internet. You can do a reverse image search to search for images by right-clicking on a photo and selecting “search Google for image” to verify authenticity. Look for scars. Whenever possible, an experienced cosmetic surgeon will place incisions in the natural folds of the skin or where they can be easily concealed by clothing.
Make sure all patients don’t have the same look in the “after” images. This suggests that the surgeon is good at achieving only a certain look. You want a balanced outcome and a custom procedure, not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to cosmetic surgery. You must find a surgeon who will adjust the surgical plan and technique to create a result that best enhances a patient’s unique anatomy.
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The patient's body positioning should be as close as possible in their after photo as it was in their before photo.
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In facelift photos, look for changes in facial expression. A large smile in an “after” photo can give a skewed impression of the actual success of the procedure, as the facial muscles will be temporarily lifting some of the patient’s skin and tissue.
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For the best read on facelift surgical scars, the patient's ears should never be hidden by hair or jewelry, and the incisions should be well concealed within the patient’s tragus and hairline.
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In breast photos, if the patient's arms are hanging down in the before photo but pulled back in the after photo, this will give the appearance of more perky breasts and a more dramatic result. Patients' arms should always hang naturally at the side of their bodies.
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Don’t fall for slick marketing tactics; you deserve the best results possible. This should be your main objective: ensure your surgeon has an abundance of before-and-after photographs to review.
