A handful of plastic surgeons are snapping their surgeries in an unusually graphic meeting of social media and medicine.
Snapchat is a social media application that allows users to essentially live-stream their experience with little room to edit.
The result is raw, unfiltered vision that is not for the faint of heart.
The leading surgeons of the trend are all American with differing approaches to sharing their work: some provide personal introductions to the procedures while others make use of dedicated social media employees. But they all feature raw surgical vision.
Surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer - aka Dr. Miami (@therealdrmiami) uses a very simple template for his stories of the day. He begins with a personal introduction, hears about what procedures are scheduled, films some banter and then begins a 'shoutout' section where he responds to comments from fans.
Miami spoke to E! Online about the effects of incorporating Snapchat into his everyday work.
"With the Snapchat you see real people, you see real surgery. You see real results," he said.
Miami said the social media device allowed for him to show a better side to surgery and perhaps debunk a few assumptions.
"You see that it's not perfect, but it's better [than what you might imagine]. It's painful, but it's tolerable—[the human body] in all its beautiful detail," he said.
Miami has two social media assistants who assist in the filming and overall account management: Brittany Benson and Ashley Belance.
The creation of personalities and additional characters differs from other surgeons' accounts who focus moreso on their own presence as the viewers' point of contact.
Surgeon Dr. Matthew Schulman (@nycplasticsurg) takes a more educational approach to his snapchats as he involves his audience in the expected outcomes for surgery.
