Wanting to take the perfect selfie can become an obsession—so much so that some picture-takers are turning to a newly approved cosmetic surgery procedure in their quest to post the most flattering shot on Instagram.
A Philadelphia-area CBS affiliate is reporting on the new procedure, which involves injecting bile acid into your chin in order to destroy the fat cells there and lose the much-loathed "selfie chin."
The injections of Kybella cost between $600 and $5,000 depending on how many are needed, and can take up to eight weeks to work. But that's a small price to pay for some. One woman interviewed by CBS said she noticed the fat under her chin in "[p]retty much every photo" until getting the injections. "So why not [have the procedure] if I can melt it away and it’ll be gone within a couple weeks," she told the network.
The procedure takes five minutes and was described by one woman who went through it as "a little bit uncomfortable."
Kybella was actually approved by the FDA late last year, but it is only now that its use is spreading beyond a handful of doctors. Possible side effects include a few days of redness in the injected area and numbness in your chin for up to a month.
Allergan, the company that recently acquired Kythera, who created Kybella), expects that Kybella sales may one day rival Botox. To do that, though, they're going to have to, as one article put it, "penetrate the male market"—something they're trying to do by using a male narrator in an ad.
