"I always know when something is trending on TikTok because I'll have an influx of patients coming in and asking me about the same thing," said Dr. Niket Sonpal, a gastroenterologist in New York City.
Most of the time, that "thing" is a beauty or wellness tip that's gone viral on the video-sharing platform, without evidence that it works. The advice might be just ineffective, but it could be outright dangerous.
"We talk about TikTok all the time in my office," said Dr. Dendy Engelman, a New York dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon, "and I think it might be worse than other platforms because people are really looking to create content with that wow factor, the thing that will go viral, even if it's not grounded in science."
But many consumers throw reason and caution to the wind when faced with these trends, underscoring a growing subversion of authority in which an influencer's word is replacing that of experts.
"Patients are often so timid in our office about trying treatments," Engelman said. "But when they see something done on Instagram from an 18-year-old influencer, they're like, 'Sure!' "
Compiling an exhaustive list of TikTok's bad beauty advice is next to impossible because the content on the platform seems to multiply in step with our insatiable craving for the new. But a few trends that have dominated the platform of late are especially mind-boggling to doctors.
Take "sunscreen contouring," which Dr. Neera Nathan, a dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, heard about to her horror from one of her patients.
Some influencers have advised people to use a thick sunscreen with high SPF, applying it only on the areas they want to highlight, like the top of the cheekbones and bridge of the nose. The rest of the face is left to tan (and burn), sunscreen-free.
