Artificial Intelligence (AI) Filter Applications and Rhinoplasty: What Your App Cannot Tell You About Real, Achievable Results

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Filter Applications and Rhinoplasty: What Your App Cannot Tell You About Real, Achievable Results

Do AI face filter applications provide realistic rhinoplasty results? No, AI face filter applications generally do not provide realistic rhinoplasty results, in my opinion. However, their popularity is understandable. Furthermore, these photos can sometimes be useful to facilitate counseling during a consultation for rhinoplasty surgery.

Artificial intelligence (AI) photo filter applications have become increasingly popular. Altered photos have flooded social media feeds. The presumed intent of these applications is to alter our appearance in photos to achieve a specific aesthetic goal. Sometimes, the goal is to subtly smooth perceived skin imperfections. Other times, the goal is more transformative. For example, many filters create larger eyes and smaller noses on people.

I, and likely many other facial plastic surgeons, have seen individuals in consultation who show photos of themselves that have been altered by these applications. The way they are presented in consultation varies widely, from a light suggestion meant to illustrate desires they are verbally communicating for rhinoplasty surgery to a demand for a specific appearance or “look.”

AI Filter Application Results are Understandably Desirable, Sometimes Helpful, But Usually Unrealistic

I believe that using AI to filter photos is understandable and not entirely different than wearing makeup, staging lighting, and/or positioning during a photo. That is why it is not bothersome to me when someone brings in these photos to help them communicate their aesthetic goals. In fact, the use of these images can be empowering for patients and even assist me during the consultation.

However, it is essential to emphasize that the use of AI filter applications to alter the nose often gives a false impression of what can be achieved with rhinoplasty surgery . AI filters too often:

1. Alter the nose in anatomically impossible ways.
2. Alter the nose in ways that are not advisable to try to replicate surgically.

This is why pre-operative counseling is so important. It is important to distinguish what is achievable from what is an unrealistic expectation. In a sense, these filtered photos better reveal a patient’s preferences and expectations than they ever could by simply verbally communicating them. In response, I communicate the more important concept of facial harmony and understanding anatomic limitations and natural-appearing, real-world results with rhinoplasty surgery to set appropriate expectations.

The Nose is Like a Bridge Draped in a Blanket, Not a Sculpted Piece of Clay

The most frequent mismatch between what patients seek and what is achievable is in the overall size of the nose. The size of the nose requested is often much smaller and narrower than what is advisable or even desirable aesthetically in the real world.

The best way to understand why an overly narrowed, small nose is often not achievable is to understand nasal anatomy. Rhinoplasty surgery is not like sculpting a nose out of clay or carving it out of stone. A surgeon cannot alter any small portion of the surface area of the nose to a millimeter of precision with any reliability. Nasal anatomy simply does not allow this. A better way to conceptualize the nose is to think of a bridge draped in a huge blanket of varying thickness. The blanket represents the skin and can be thicker or thinner depending on the person. Changes made to the structures underneath thinner skin have more dramatic results but also reveal more imperfections. Conversely, thicker skin better hides imperfections but demonstrates less dramatic results, on average. The “bridge” underneath the skin “blanket” refers to the complexly shaped and oriented cartilage and bone underneath. Each component has its own structural qualities that make it stronger and less deformable in some areas and weaker and more deformable in other areas. The nasal tip also results from an interplay of soft tissue connections to the underlying cartilage framework that places it in tension with itself, like a bridge.

Excellent Rhinoplasty Results Harmonize with the Rest of the Face in the Real World

Excellent rhinoplasty surgery involves understanding how altering one area not only can result in a redistribution of force to change another area but also how changing one feature of the nose alters the appearance of nearby features. AI filter applications treat the nose more like a piece of clay to be sculpted than a bridge covered in a blanket. Finally, unlike a clay statue, the tissue layers of the nose need to heal after surgery, which can result in less predictable, though usually subtle, changes in the appearance of the nose over time.

In summary, an over-reduced nose is not only not advisable from a structural standpoint – potentially leading to an increased risk of problems breathing and eventual collapse over many years – but is often not even possible to achieve. AI filters too often simulate such an “impossible” nose for people.

Furthermore, as I have previously written , wide-angle lens cellular phone cameras make the face look wider than it is in proximity, which would make trying to achieve such a small, narrow look even less possible and riskier. Instead, I emphasize working to achieve a result that harmonizes with the face, is structurally sound, and looks good in the real world. Good surgical planning reflects more of the bridge draped in a blanket rather than a block of clay molded precisely to the heart’s desire.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Regarding AI Filter Applications and Rhinoplasty

Can I show my surgeon a filtered photo?

Yes, a patient is free to show their surgeon a filtered photo if the surgeon is agreeable and it helps the patient explain their aesthetic goals. Please just be sure to make it clear to the surgeon that it is a filtered photo. And please understand that these results are highly likely to be unrealistic. Therefore, expect counseling from the surgeon as to why these results may be unachievable, what may be achievable, and why.

Can rhinoplasty give me a smaller nose like my filter?

No, while rhinoplasty can give patients a smaller, narrower nasal tip and a narrower nasal bridge, it is unlikely to be like the AI filtered photo(s) for the reasons discussed previously.

How do I know what my results will look like?

There are programs available that provide two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) simulations of possible results from rhinoplasty surgery. However, both types of programs still treat the nose like a block of clay rather than a bridge draped in a blanket. These simulation programs, while not as reflexively extreme as automated AI filters, should be taken only as a possibility and with a grain of salt. These programs are most useful to show patients how the more “extreme” changes sought can negatively affect facial harmony.

AI Filter Applications Can Be a Starting Point but a Consultation with Dr. Harmon is Essential

AI filtered images are a starting point for conversation, not a surgical plan. Dr. Harmon utilizes a physical exam rather than the output from an application to determine what is achievable, natural, and harmonious for each patient’s face. Contact the office today if you would like to sit down in conversation to discuss your aesthetic goals for your nose.