Psychology Behind Aesthetic Rhinoplasty – Introducing the term “SIFON”

Abstract

Rhinoplasty is considered one of the challenging aesthetic procedures. Psychosocial concerns motivate the urge for aesthetic procedures especially rhinoplasty. Males who fall in this category are designated as single, immature, male, over expectant and narcissistic (SIMON) in literature. As of yet, no term depicts females showing similar characteristics. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the incidence of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) in females seeking rhinoplasty and to introduce a new term. A prospective, questionnaire based, qualitative study was conducted in the Department Of Plastic Surgery, Services Institute Of Medical Sciences and Surgimed Hospital, Lahore between March 2018 and March 2020. 110 female candidates seeking aesthetic rhinoplasty were included in the study. BDD was evaluated using the Dysmorphic Concerns Questionnaire, DCQ (Table 1). Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 software and correlation between the groups was evaluated. Out of 110 female subjects, 77.3% (n = 85) were single, 16.4% (n = 18) were married and 6.4% (n = 7) were divorced. BDD was found in 41.8% (n = 46) of the candidates, majority being single (n = 41, 89.1%) and having educational status above diploma (n = 39, 84.8%). There was a statistically higher percentage of young adults between 24 and 28 years (n = 33, 71.7%) having BDD (P = 0.0001). Considering the high frequency of BDD among females seeking rhinoplasty, a standardized term 'SIFON' is introduced to describe such individuals who are S; single, I; immature, F; female, O; over expectant, N; narcissistic as apposed to SIMON in males.