Jennifer Lopez has been making waves lately with her schoolgirl hair bows and flawless doll-like skin, sparking a trend towards a more youthful and innocent beauty aesthetic. While some of these trends are harmless fun, there’s one that I just can’t get behind: dimpleplasty. This procedure involves surgically creating dimples on the face, and to me, it’s both absurd and unnecessary. We’re getting dangerously close to treating grown women like babies, pinching their cheeks and cooing at them.
As someone who has been a beauty editor for 12 years, I’ve seen plenty of cosmetic surgery fads come and go faster than those wedge trainers from a few years back. I firmly believe that women should have the right to choose what they do with their bodies, so I’m not here to judge anyone’s decisions. However, dimpleplasty crosses a line for me.
What worries me even more is the message that dimpleplasty is sending, especially to younger generations like Gen Z who are easily influenced by trends on platforms like TikTok. The fact that this search term has racked up over 53.3 million views is troubling, as it normalizes the idea of undergoing surgery at a young age.
Dr. Ashwin Soni, a plastic surgeon and the founder of The Soni Clinic, shares my concerns. Despite its rising popularity, he refuses to perform dimpleplasty. He points out that social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, along with celebrity influences such as Ariana Grande and Harry Styles, are fueling the demand for this surgery. Even the cheek-fat compression devices used by TikTokers to mimic dimples are contributing to its allure.
But what exactly is dimpleplasty? According to Dr. Soni, it’s a procedure done under local anesthesia where a small amount of fat inside the cheek is removed through an incision made inside the mouth. Stitches are then placed to create a dimple where one doesn’t naturally exist, essentially creating scar tissue internally.
Despite the perception that dimpleplasty is a simple and low-risk procedure that doesn’t require a hospital stay, it is still surgery with potential risks. These include under or over-correction of the dimple, scarring internally and externally, nerve and blood vessel damage, and the risk of infection.
So, what’s my issue with dimpleplasty? While it’s gaining popularity online, I can’t support a trend that transforms a natural facial feature into a beauty standard associated with childlike innocence and cuteness. Dimples are beautiful and unique features that should be celebrated, not surgically manufactured to fit an ideal of youthful sweetness that has often been used to diminish women.
