Zoom dysmorphia: Record increase in plastic surgeries during work from home

'Zoom Dysmorphia' is a disorder involving obsessive focus on perceived flaw in appearance

As meetings and various other interactions moved to video during Covid-19, a new trend of a record number of plastic surgeries in the US has emerged.

This new phenomenon is dubbed as 'Zoom Dysmorphia', a disorder involving obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance. Now, more and more people are seeking plastic surgeries citing their appearance on Zoom calls, according to researchers in the US.

A study in the journal Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine says the issues concern nose and wrinkles particularly.

"We suspect the trend may also arise from people constantly seeing themselves on video and becoming more aware of their appearance," the authors said, the News18 reported.

Before Covid and Zoom, some often-used photo editing tools, filters to alter certain features that they felt were undesirable. Termed 'Snapchat dysmorphia', people often drove themselves into body dysmorphic disorder.

"A life disproportionately spent on Zoom may trigger a self-critical comparative response that leads people to rush to their physicians for treatments they may not have considered before months confronting a video screen, a new phenomenon of 'Zoom Dysmorphia'," said Arianne Shadi Kourosh from Massachusetts General Hospital and one of the co-authors of the study.

The researches turned to the facial feedback hypothesis and assessed emotional response to certain features, wrinkles, for instance, resulted in sad emotions and led to a further cycle of self-deprecating.

During Zoom meetings, people are confronted with their own self more often than pre-Covid. Hours and hours spent looking at themselves, for some, can result in harmful effects.

However, it is worth noting that these defects may be real or imagined, and subjective.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed the frequency with which we are confronted with our own image. The shift to online work, learning, and even socializing has dramatically increased the time we have to observe ourselves," said Benjamin Marcus from University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics.