NSW’s top doctors concerned cosmetic beauty has become ‘new norm’ among teenagers

In the face of expotentially rising requests for cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures among young women, reputable doctors are turning away girls as young as 16 brought in by their parents for treatment.

Generation Jenner: Teen girls want altered lips, cheeks and noses

Cosmetic doctors across NSW are increasingly turning away young adults for serious procedures like lip and dermal fillers, with one expert practitioner claiming children as young as 16 have been brought in by their parents for treatment.

Experienced Central Coast doctor Nik Davies told The Daily Telegraph one example was a mum who brought her 16-year-old daughter to see him because she “hated her lips”.

“The girl’s mother asked whether she could sign a parental consent form for her daughter’s lip injections,” Davies said.

“I told her no, and that if she really wanted that, she could come back after her 18th birthday.

“When they have risks explained to them, most patients are understanding of these age limitations and why they’re in place. Whether they doctor shop is another story.”

Cosmetic doctor Dr Nik Davies is the founder of luxury cosmetics and wellness centre Klinika on the Central Coast. Picture: Josef Nalevansky.

The minimum age for plastic surgery or injectables in Australia is 18-years-old for “cosmetic enhancements”, Davies added.

By law, patients under this age should not have procedures to modify their physical appearance unless it is in their medical or psychological interests.

“Despite this, there is a growing interest in younger patients inquiring about both surgical and non-surgical procedures such as rhinoplasty (nose jobs), botulinum toxin (Botox) and dermal fillers, which is potentially fuelled by social media,” Dr Davies said.

“In my own clinic, I regularly discuss this with younger patients and even their parents, who can sometimes attend with their child requesting treatments.

“I’m seeing more people coming in earlier but there’s not a massive influx of teenagers.

“However, it’s now very common for people in their early 20s to come in for preventative or ‘baby Botox’.”

Cosmetic doctor Dr Nik Davies in action.

In addition to recently opening his own luxury cosmetic and wellness centre, Klinika, Davies is the medical director for Silk Laser Clinic, who have 150 clinics across Australia.

“The vast majority of their income comes from injectables,” he said. “It’s becoming more and more popular every single year.”

Booming business is being driven mostly by the Millennial demographic, according to the Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery (ACCSM), who found that 38 per cent of the adult population are considering cosmetic surgery in the next 10 years.

“That’s seven million Australians,” ACCSM president and top Double Bay cosmetic doctor Anoop Rastogi said.

One in four Aussie Millennials (aged 23-42) have already had cosmetic surgery, and 59 per cent are considering it.

Social media and photo filters have been identified as a key driver for the rise in popularity of cosmetic surgery. PhD student Taliya Thompson, 22, is studying this connection. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“There is no doubt that social media is the driver,” Rastogi said.

“There’s a sense of showing your appearance constantly, and constantly looking at digitally altered appearances, which are not the same as a normal appearance.

“Therefore the new norm is to sync to somebody who has a filtered appearance, and an aspiration to go beyond.”

Over the age of 25, Rastogi said the growth in the industry is exponential.

“Some of that is reasonable, some of that you really have to question,” he said.

It is reasonable, he said, to treat a deep frown line on a young person to prevent it from worsening with age or to inject a person with unusually thin lips.

“The thing we see that is concerning is girls who have lovely lips already, who want them to look inflated. That is a worrying trend.

“As are the 20-somethings having filler in their cheeks. There is an age where the natural fat in your face starts to deplete and that happens little by little over 35.”

However, he added that 18 is the legal age for cosmetics in Australia, and if someone really wants to look a certain way and accepts the risks, then ultimately that’s their choice.

“We should not be creating hyper-augmented faces in 2023”, Davies agreed.

He praised new industry regulations, which came into effect from July, that include patients needing GP referrals, a psychiatric screening for Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) for cosmetics, a one-week cooling-off period for plastic surgeries after signing consent, and far stricter advertising standards.

“Just because somebody books in to have a lip filler with me doesn’t in any way mean they’re going to walk out with a lip filler because if I don’t think it’s the right thing to do, then I will not do it,” Davies said.

“That’s what separates the good doctors from the factories looking to make a quick buck.”

Originally published as NSW’s top doctors concerned cosmetic beauty has become ‘new norm’ among teenagers