What has struck me (Dr. McGee) over the years in ocular aesthetics is the shame patients often display in expressing to me that they want to look better: “I know it sounds vain, but is there anything I can do about my sagging eyelids?” I have a theory about why this occurs. Specifically, I think “aesthetics” has too often been framed as superficial, indulgent, and optional—a luxury disconnected from health, identity, and humanity. What’s more, I see this perpetuated on social media.
While social media has created extraordinary opportunities for education and visibility, I feel it has also blurred the line between influence and expertise. In aesthetics, especially, I have witnessed the rise of influencers who are not always the most knowledgeable in this area.
Aesthetics is not simply content creation. It is not about trends. It is not about before-and-after photos divorced from context, anatomy, or ethics. Additionally, aesthetics is not something that should be approached casually because a device is accessible or a procedure appears marketable.
Behind every related device and procedure is tissue. Vascular supply. Inflammation. Healing. Anatomy. Risk. Emotion. Expectation. Patients deserve clinicians who fully understand what they are doing to tissue and why they are doing it.
At its best, aesthetics is art and science working together. It is subtle. Intentional. Individualized. It requires technical expertise but also emotional intelligence. It is about how people move through the world when they feel aligned with themselves again. That is not vanity. That is humanity.
Aesthetics is an emerging evolution within optom-etry. It deepens the doctor-patient relationship. It creates space for more honest conversations guided by our subject matter expertise. Conversations about chronic disease, confidence, fatigue, aging, identity, and self-perception. Conversations many patients are desperate to have with us.
And so, if the aesthetics space becomes more about performance, branding, and commoditization than patients, then we will have missed the point entirely.
As optometrists, we cannot afford to confuse accessibility with mastery. Our reputations and the reputation of the profession is too important.
We are relationship-driven clinicians. We see patients over their lifetimes. We understand the complexity of the ocular surface and periocular anatomy. We live at the intersection of function and appearance every single day. Dry eye disease, meibomian gland dysfunction, dermatochalasis, ocular inflammation, blepharitis, cosmetic concerns, and visual function are not isolated conversations in our examination rooms; they are deeply interconnected ones.
Patients already trust us with one of their most personal senses. That trust matters. But with opportunity comes responsibility, and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge my growing concern about all the ways ocular aesthetics could go wrong.
Optometry is not immune to performance culture. Let’s not forget that. That being said, enjoy this issue of MOD!
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