Revolutionizing Aesthetic Medicine and Dermatology with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. AI has become a widely used tool in aesthetic medicine, surgery, and dermatology. Whether it’s used for improving patient care and diagnostics or optimizing marketing in medical practice, AI has proven to be valuable and has become a transformative tool for practitioners. It can be used to improve consultations with patients, provide thorough facial analysis, simulate aesthetic treatment outcomes, craft unique surgical implants, efficiently read medical scans, and even perform surgical tasks. From a marketing perspective, AI can be used to optimize content creation. It can be used to make tailored captions and SEO-optimized keywords, analyze trends, create ads, and provide performance analysis to improve engagement. With all these miraculous innovations, however, there are ethical considerations, including data security and storage, biases, and accountability. This article explores the possibilities of AI and how it can be ethically utilized to enhance aesthetic medicine and marketing to grow one’s practice to its maximum potential.

AI IN PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE QUESTIONS

There are various ways in which AI can be used to improve clinical care. ChatGPT is a popular and accessible generative artificial intelligence language learning model that uses natural language processing to generate text responses. In a 2023 study, ChatGPT was used to simulate a physician’s response to a set of hypothetical preoperative and postoperative patient questions following septorhinoplasty.¹ Responses were collected from a board-certified rhinoplasty surgeon and answers were anonymously given to seven physicians to grade and rate. The study found that ChatGPT performed better than physicians in three of the four performance areas and earned significantly higher ratings in accuracy, completeness, and overall quality. This shows promise for standardized, accessible care in the future, which would be especially useful for helping busy physicians perform routine, repetitive tasks and for people who may not have immediate access to healthcare.

AI IN PREDICTING TREATMENT OUTCOMES

Prior to treatment, AI can be used to simulate the expected aesthetic outcome, which can be helpful for both the patient and the provider. In a 2022 study, 97 physicians were asked to rate their agreement with an artificial intelligence model (AIM) that simulated post-rhinoplasty results following the surgeon’s style. The physicians were in total or partial agreement with the surgeon’s simulation 77.3% of the time and in agreement with the AIM’s simulation 68.4%.² Although the surgeon’s ratings were higher, the AI model could replicate the surgeon’s style to a high degree. This can be a great resource for surgeons to present their work to their patients and to simplify their workload. Patients can also have a better idea of a surgeon’s style to help determine whether their aesthetic goals are aligned with the surgeon’s usual aesthetic results.

Similarly, providers and patients can use AI applications to simulate post-treatment outcomes through Perfect Corp AI, an aesthetic simulator app. It can be used to demonstrate the effects of aesthetic treatments, such as lip, cheek, and jawline augmentation to name a few. Perfect Corp can also provide a thorough skin analysis instantly with 14 quantifiable parameters relating to skin concerns that can be tracked to analyze improvement. This AI technology was developed using 70,000 clinical images of people with diverse backgrounds (age, race, and ethnicity) through a machine learning (ML) algorithm. Within a few seconds, the Perfect Corp AI Skin Analyzer app can rank the following parameters of a patient: spots, texture, dark circles, redness, pores, wrinkles, oiliness, moisture, eye bags, acne, skin firmness, skin radiance, upper eyelid droopiness, and lower eyelid droopiness. With tools like these, the assessment of aesthetic concerns can be standardized, and patients can have clearer expectations, which can greatly improve satisfaction rates.

AI IN SURGERY

AI has also been designed to perform surgical tasks. Existing surgical robots have been human-operated so that the robot does not have autonomy and functions in a “leader-follower” manner, but newer models are being developed with increased autonomy. The rankings per the Levels of Autonomy in Surgical Robots (LASR) scale range from Level 1 (Robot Assistance) to Level 5 (Full Autonomy).³ Robotic surgery and real-time AI image enhancement (Level 1) have been used for operating in deep anatomical spaces with small incisions made for the insertion of cameras and instruments. These AI images enhanced the visualization of the intraoperative environment, which can even be deblurred and color corrected.⁴ An AI surgical robot model has also been developed to define safe dissection planes by automatically segmenting loose connective tissue. This model was trained to predict fine anatomical structures at an expert level, with a low misrecognition score.⁵ Other AI surgical models have the ability to estimate blood loss during surgery and manage surgical sponges during procedures.⁶

A French AI company called NextMotion, founded in 2015, has created various technologies for aesthetic practices—most notably, an autonomous AI injector robot known as LENA (light enabled neuro-robotic arm) that is said to perform botulinum toxin injection with submillimeter precision. LENA is used with an electronic syringe that is said to deliver doses calibrated to the thousandth of a millimeter and an iOS app that captures an image of the patient and allows the injection sites to be determined/supervised by a doctor.⁷ While this technology is interesting and innovative, it raises important ethical considerations that must be thoroughly examined through clinical trials and research.

AI IN IMPLANT CREATION

Along with the surgical advancements, AI has been a valuable tool in customized implant creation and tissue engineering for plastic surgeons and oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Meticuly is an AI- and cloud-based surgical planning tool that uses its CraNeXt algorithm to create patient-specific implant 3D printing and help with pre-operative planning. It has been used to create a mid-face reconstruction mesh as a personalized maxillofacial reconstruction solution, with the contours designed from patient computed tomography (CT) scan data.⁸ It is also available for mandibular and oculoplastic reconstruction and cranioplasty implant construction.

Prior to implant creation and surgical reconstruction, however, thorough surgical planning is done. Virtual surgical planning has become widely used and has many advantages, such as decreased operative time and length of stay.⁹ A 2024 study observed how statistical shape modeling (SSM), a machine learning model that simulates 3D meshes, can virtually reconstruct premorbid anatomy in a patient-specific manner with the intention of improving fibula-free flap reconstruction (FFFR) surgery for maxillary defects. Bilateral maxillary reconstruction poses many challenges due to the loss of anatomical landmarks and a contralateral reference; therefore, this study shows how SSM can allow surgeons to have higher FFFR accuracy, fewer complications, and improved post-operative outcomes.¹⁰

AI IN EPIGENETICS

AI is also being used to study epigenetics to make the analysis of genetic data more efficient. Epigenetics can be useful to determine a patient’s skin health and damage along with regenerative and healing abilities. Typically, in epigenetics, DNA methylation is most studied as it plays a crucial role in many biological processes.¹¹ The Mitra Bio technology that was created in 2020 is a non-invasive skin diagnostic model that is intended to replace skin biopsies. With this model, tape is used to collect biological material from the skin, followed by analysis of DNA methylation markers with advanced sequencing to assess the skin’s age, inflammation, and sun damage. Based on the findings, personalized precision therapy is used to cater to the patient’s unique needs.¹² This can be very useful in enhancing patient care and reducing the need for resource- and time-intensive diagnostic methods, and it can help providers understand each patient’s skin health.

AI IN EMOTION RECOGNITION

Emotional recognition is a rapidly growing branch of AI that allows computers to detect nonverbal human language, which includes facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. DeepFace AI is capable of facial verification, recognition, facial attribute analysis, and face analysis using Python. Similarly, in a 2023 study, brow position was analyzed pre- and postoperative to a brow lift surgery using the FaceReader software.¹³ Brow position is a known indicator of human emotional expression and is typically analyzed manually, which can be tedious and inaccurate. However, this study analyzed the brow position using FaceReader and found that the degree of brow rotation is correlated with the percentage of disgust and sadness. This demonstrated that manipulated brow positions alter emotional expression, which can be efficiently detected using AI. With growing tools like these, physicians can understand how procedures can impact essential human facial movements and prevent undesirable outcomes, such as unnatural expressions and restricted mobility. This can help improve patient satisfaction and treatment outcomes.

AI IN DIAGNOSTICS

AI has also been used for diagnostic purposes. The SLIViT framework is an AI framework (a uniform 3D-based, deep-learning model) that measures disease-related risk factors by reading biomedical imaging, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CT, and ultrasound. This framework was found to reduce annotation time by a factor of 5,000 while maintaining expert accuracy.¹⁴ This shows great promise for the future of medicine, as it can allow for faster medical care and standardized accuracy.

The use of ultrasound imaging in aesthetic medicine has been well-established as a safety and diagnostic measure. New AI-enhanced US technologies have been developed that provide expedited data collection, decreased variability, and increased quality and data precision. With AI, ML, and deep learning (DL), the AI solutions across Clario’s technology allow for complex document and image classification, landmark detection, highlighting of the regions of interest, and facial masking for patient privacy.¹⁵ In aesthetic medicine, AI-enhanced ultrasounds can be valuable for facial vascular mapping, which can improve safety outcomes and help avoid vascular occlusions. There are also AI models of ultrasound devices that can overlay key anatomical structures and tissue layers over a patient’s face to allow new clinicians to learn effectively.

AI IN MARKETING

Successful marketing has become an essential tactic to grow one’s practice. AI has transformed marketing by simplifying tedious tasks, ensuring optimal audience engagement, analyzing marketing trends, and creating unique content. For example, AI, like ChatGPT, can be used to generate search engine optimized (SEO) content, which can increase online visibility, drive online traffic, and reach the target audience effectively. SEO content can be incorporated by using relevant keywords and search terms that customers may be searching for when looking for the services you are offering. It can also be included when posting blog posts, articles, infographics, social media posts, and videos with SEO tags, text descriptions, headers, and links in your released content.

AI can be used for administrative tasks in a medical practice. ChatGPT can screen resumes by analyzing the skills and qualifications of applicants based on predefined criteria. It can generate interview questions, write clear job descriptions for job search websites, and create onboarding checklists. Additionally, AI can generate personalized email templates for any promotional campaigns, post-treatment instructions and follow-up reminders, skincare recommendations, and patient newsletters. Having these tedious but important tasks completed by AI instead of individually can greatly improve workflow and time management.

CONCLUSION

AI is revolutionizing aesthetic medicine, surgery, and dermatology by enhancing patient care, surgical planning, safety, patient satisfaction, and treatment outcomes. From predictive technologies to customized AI-powered implant creation to thorough facial analysis, AI is reshaping the clinical care and marketing of practices, allowing for optimal growth. As these innovations continue developing and evolving, there can be great improvements and quality, standardized care. However, there are concerns that need to be explored before implementation, such as data security, accuracy, biases, accountability and liability, accessibility and cost, and various patient safety concerns. Therefore, there must always be ongoing clinical validation, diverse data sets, and proper education on the responsible use of AI.

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15. Leading the AI revolution in clinical trials. Clario. 2025. https://clario.com/solutions/ai/?utm_term=ai+medical+imaging&utm_campaign=%7B+campaign%7D&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6259760971&hsa_cam+=21277062614&hsa_grp=167806978048&hsa_ad=699042660670&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=+kwd-+444583480770&hsa_kw=ai+medical+imaging&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa+_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAm-+67BhBlEiwAEVftNvDHMth6Eiv6HY2cICGJyDP3h1Ffbt5_qKl3jBVs_qAxf9Y6t3csOx+oCWiEQAvD_BwE.