Beauty is in the eye of the follower: Facial aesthetics in the age of social media.

Abstract Background The advent of social media has influenced the relationship between aesthetic surgeons and their patients, as well as the motivations of such patients to seek cosmetic surgery. Aims & objectives To determine how the cephalometric proportions of modern social media models fit with historical canons of beauty. Materials & methods Frontal and lateral photographs of 20 high-influence female Instagram models were obtained and evaluated for cephalometric measures. The means of these measures were compared with previous reports in the literature. Results Cephalometric measurements of social media models were in agreement with historical ideals of beauty for Nostril axis (120.7°), Goode's ratio (0.6), Nasofacial angle (35.7°), Nasofrontal angle (130.9°), and the horizontal thirds. Results were discrepant from historical ideals for the Nasolabial angle (82.6°) and the vertical facial fifths. Conclusion Cephalometric measurements of social media models in the digital age closely resemble the ideal values proposed by previous authors. Due to a preference for larger or altered lip profiles, nostril axis is a more reliable measure of nasal tip rotation than nasolabial angle.