Why Healing Takes Time and How Selfie Cameras Distort Reality
In this episode of We Nose Noses, Dr. Undavia covers the common concerns patients have about post-surgery imperfections seen in photos but not in the mirror. Follow along an find out why the healing process varies across different parts of your face and how the digital enhancements of selfie cameras can distort your perception. Dr. Undavia explains why patience is key during recovery and how to evaluate your results accurately.
What you’ll learn
- The natural variations in the healing process and why different parts of your face heal at different rates.
- How digital selfie cameras amplify imperfections and why these do not reflect your true appearance.
- The importance of patience in the healing process and how to correctly assess your post-surgery results.
If you have questions about our procedures or anything else ENT or plastic surgery related, schedule a consultation today at our Marlton, New Jersey location by visiting NJENT.com or call 609-710-NOSE (6673).
Listen to the audio version below.
Audio Transcript:
Dr. Undavia:
Hey guys, it’s me, Dr. Undavia from NJENT and Facial Plastic Surgery. And today I wanted to talk to you about something that happens a lot in the office where patients will come in and they say, I thought everything was looking great, but then I saw a photo of somebody that, or I saw a photo that I took or that somebody took of me and I saw an imperfection and I don’t want to see that on these photos. And why does that always happen?
And so the first thing that I tell patients is that really your healing period is a, it’s a, it really takes a long time and it’s, it’s a process. It really doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen smoothly all the time. Sometimes there’s, like the left side of your nose or the left side of your face will heal much faster than the right side and vice versa. And that is a very common phenomena.
You are, your body is not split perfectly in half and there are different parts of your body that will heal at different paces than others. And so often you do heal at, you do have imperfections as you heal and that’s a normal phenomena. You should let us know about that when it happens. But why is it that we see it on the selfie camera or on a smartphone much more often than we do in the mirror? And there’s a very good reason for that.
I see all the time when patients walk into the room, I look at them and they look beautiful. But when I take the photo on my iPhone, I see imperfections. And part of that is good for me. I like to see that so that I could see what areas I need to address either with steroids or whatnot. But part of that also plays with our patients’ minds. So the selfie camera is not a true camera. It’s the digital camera. And the way it generates an image is by having different contrasts, having different colors, having their contrasts amplified. And that’s how it generates an image. It takes two colors and when there’s a demarcation between the colors, it amplifies that and it then creates the image. But in doing so, it will highlight imperfections that you might not normally see.
And so patients sometimes will say, well, I don’t want to see that in the photo. I have to say, well, do you see it in the mirror? And they say, no. And one of the things that we have to do is say, we have to wait, because we don’t want to fix something for a selfie image that doesn’t happen in real life, because all of a sudden, when you look in the mirror, if we’re fixing something for the selfie image, it’s actually going to distort the real life image. And so you might look better on a selfie photo, but then in real life, you will not. You’ll either have a bump or some other contour irregularity.
So a lot of times what I tell patients is that if you’re going to use a camera, try and use a true single lens reflex camera or be patient with these photos because sometimes you will see imperfections.
Thanks for listening. Again, I’m Dr. Samir Undavia with NJENT in facial plastic surgery. If you have any questions, you can always reach us at 609 -710 -6673. That phone number receives calls or texts, and you can also find us on the web at njent .com.
