We’ve been seeing a lot of treatment/results photos on Instagram lately & we love a good before & after pic like the next gal but we’re here to clarify a couple things that have been bugging us.
It’s important to be careful as a consumer to keep a critical eye & do your due diligence. This includes looking at before & after photos of medical aesthetic treatments or procedures. A lot of times you’re not actually seeing the real results.
For those of you that don’t know… FaceTune and the like has taken over the internet & it’s now super easy for anyone to edit and even completely change photos. You can smooth skin, whiten teeth, and alter the shape of images by making things larger or smaller (depending on end goal). The biggest one we’re noticing is the smoothing effect on before & afters which can mislead clients into thinking that lines and pores have been completely eliminated (when in fact they likely have not). A lot of us are guilty of doing some tweaks here & there but there is no place for it in before & after photography. It is so important to capture the same angle, lighting, positioning of the photo/client in order to have a good comparison shot and it is really hard to do.
For example, jawline filler photos can be super misleading as the chin in the before photo can be pointed downward ever so slightly compared to the after photo, making it seem like the jaw is more chiseled and the submental fat (under the chin) is gone!
It is our job as professionals to be truthful & not misleading to the public (and to each other). As experts we have to set realistic expectations, especially when people are trusting us with their hard earned money. At BE, we strive to be as truthful as possible and never overpromise results. You will not hear us say we can “get rid of” or make something “disappear.” Aging is a natural process that we don’t aim to stop completely (even if we could). We are simply trying to slow the process down & allow our clients to age naturally. Like seriously, no 50 year old should look 20 something.
That is sometimes why we struggle posting our own before & after photos. Good quality before & after photos are nearly impossible to capture (if anything a before & after video is better) because it’s so hard to capture all the elements between photo A & B. Don’t get us wrong… they’re good to use to show the action of the treatment (i.e. neuromodulators relax & fillers add volume) but there is certainly no way that you could come in with a photo and expect to have the exact same outcomes as what you see in the pic. You started at a different place & because of your uniqueness we will get you to your own unique outcomes based on your goals.
So… moral of the story:
Don’t believe everything you see on Instagram
Before & after photos are fun/interesting to look at but don’t always capture what’s actually been done or what is possible.
We as nurse injectors hold your trust very highly & are obligated to be honest, evidence-based and of course realistic. Remember… pretty packages are nice but results are nicer!
