You look at the woman and wonder: Is the nose real? Are the lips real? Is the woman real? On our website, we use «photos» created with artificial intelligence (AI) to illustrate the different treatments. Would you have noticed?

It’s not always easy to tell. And in that way, it mirrors real life – at least according to my philosophy of plastic surgery. An aesthetic or reconstructive procedure on the face, breast, or body shouldn’t be immediately obvious. I aim to align with natural body proportions and shapes, striving for results that look as natural as possible.

Achieving this requires me to understand what natural means. Much is possible, but it often also demands empathy and a delicate touch to help a woman see that her body image may be distorted, that her wish might not be achievable, or that a specific procedure might not result in a harmonious outcome. And the procedure itself calls for craftsmanship. («I’m a craftsman. A highly trained craftsman.»)

Creating an AI-generated image to match one’s vision is also an art – or at least a new kind of virtual craft that takes time to master. I happily leave this work to others who are more skilled in it. Still, I find the AI-generated images used on our new website fascinating. They look strikingly real.

We call all these AI models on our website Belinda, inspired by the song Pretty Belinda: «Everyone called her pretty Belinda. […] Her eyes were excited, her hair, it was golden. Her lips were inviting and my heart she’s stolen.»

The song was released in 1969, likely as a tribute to a young woman. Fifty-five years later, as an example, AI imagines a beautiful 55-year-old woman like the one in the above image. Did she undergo an aesthetic procedure? We’ll never know.

Dr. med. Borut Banič

Board-certified Specialist in Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery (FMH)
Fellow of The European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (FEBOPRAS)