Repeated exposure to overfilled faces alters your perception of normal results

Repeated exposure to overfilled faces alters how we perceive facial volume, meaning both you and your patients are susceptible to a visual adaptation that quietly shifts your baseline of what looks natural. The study published in Dermatologic Surgery demonstrated this neural adaptation process by exposing observers to images of faces with varying levels of dermal filler. After adapting to images of overfilled faces, participants began to perceive faces with moderate volume overload as normal, or even under-filled. Conversely, those exposed to natural faces rated overfilled faces as highly unnatural.

This concept of perception drift, or filler blindness, explains why patients who have been heavily treated often demand more product. Their visual system has recalibrated to their current filled state, making further volume additions seem necessary to achieve any noticeable difference. It also poses a professional risk for injectors who spend hours looking at exaggerated aesthetic standards on social media or treating a high volume of patients.

To protect your clinical outcomes from this visual bias, you can use baseline, pre-treatment photographs from the patient's first-ever visit as an anchor during follow-up consultations. Showing patients their original anatomy side-by-side with their current look helps disrupt their visual adaptation and manage expectations. For your own visual reset, consciously looking at natural, untreated faces outside of the clinical and social media setting helps keep your own aesthetic baseline grounded.

Source: Dermatologic Surgery, https://doi.org/10.1097/DSS.0000000000005048