Why Do People Keep Staring At Me Despite All Of My Surgeries?

Q: Dr. Eppley, People starring all the time at me. I dont know if its cause of my unnatural look or cause of my lips. I had 6 month ago a underlip reduction. Me for myself i see the shape and all of my complete lip as not beautiful. I would like now to know with this last email what you suggest me to do that people stop starring in a bad way to me.  I have taken a pic in the sunlight. It would be nice if you would be honest to me and my situation. I had a lot of surgeries and i dont want to make it more worst so what you suggest me now to do?

Thank you

A: I can not comment on what other people do or why you have the feeling they are staring. Whether they are or not and, if they are, why do so I can not say. 

What I can say as a general statement is that people’s perception of other’s, contrary to what most patient’s think, is usually never one specific facial structure or area. People see more the overall facial picture (gestalt) rather than specific facial features. The analogy would be in art….you may know a work of art by its overall perception of what it creates (e.g., farmer standing in a field) but most don’t see or remember the details. (e.g., was there a cow in the field, what was the color of the farmer’s pants etc)

The face may be made up of numerous individual features, which the person themselves knows very well in detail, but someone else does not see it that way. They just know the overall impression or look that all of these individual features creates. (the composite image)

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana