FORT MYERS, Fla. — We’ve all heard the old saying, ‘Beauty is pain’, but this latest beauty trend crosses the line.
It’s called “bone smashing”, and it’s just about as bad as it sounds.
Dr. Michael Kim, a Fort Myers plastic surgeon, said, “Interestingly, I vaguely heard of it, then I asked my teenage kids, and apparently, it’s (bone-smashing trend) very popular on TikTok.”
The trend spread on TikTok encourages young people to hit themselves in the face to cause fractures on purpose. It’s all in the hopes of achieving a perfect jawline or a more physically attractive face.
Kim said, spoiler alert it doesn’t work; in fact, it can be very dangerous.
“I preface by saying this, definitely should not be doing this it’s relatively unsafe, very unsafe, not medically proven,” Kim said.
This trend won’t just cause damage to your jaw; as Kim explained, “You’re really producing head trauma plus damage to the tissues to the nerves to arteries. I’ve heard of cases of possible blindness.”
Bone smashing is advertised as a way to reform your bone structure, but Kim says once again, this isn’t a healthy way to make that happen.
“Repetitive trauma in certain instances, the classic would be, I used to do karate, but some of the people in Thai boxing, you know, they hit their leg against the tree or their first against a rock,” Kim said. “It does get thicker as bone growth, but again it’s very uncontrolled damage to the tendons and ligaments and your muscles…..This is not good for you, so this bone growth from trauma is not meant on the face and to be done by yourself.”
The act of hitting yourself in the face like this can also cause nerve loss, muscle loss, and internal bleeding, causing a complex injury, not just a bone injury.
“I don’t see why somebody would break bones in their face to try to get regrowth,” Joshua Deer of Naples said.
Deer is an athlete and now a local trainer. He says there are plenty of ways to look better without smashing your own face. “I was 330 pounds, and I started the journey when I was done playing college football and I transferred my body all healthy way,” said Deer. “At this point in time, I’ve been very fortunate to make a business out of this and train people how to get healthy, and I have chiseled jaws without breaking their faces!”
Kim agreed with Deer and said, “These surgeons, including myself, have done 10 years of training and 20 or 30 years of experience. We know what works best for you. Don’t try to learn it on the internet or social media, what to do on yourself, it doesn’t make any sense at all if you’re really serious about looking better, they talk about eating healthy or exercise.”
It might not be the latest trend, but it’s a tried-and-true method that’s proven to work.
Kim said, “It goes back to working hard and dedicating your time and stuff to better yourself. I don’t think it’s about trying to find the easy fix.”
Another lesson here is don’t believe everything you see on the internet; Kim and other experts advise you to do your fact-checking and, as always, consult your doctor before trying something new.