Since its inception in 2010, Instagram has been best known for its artfully retouched images, illustrating lives that are always aesthetically pleasing and problem-free. But recently, there seems to have been a shift, with more and more people leaning into feeds that are imperfect and unpolished.

Designer dresses, sleek hair and perfectly posed ‘candids’ have been replaced by empty coffee cups, low-fi photos, blemished skin and… medical photo dumps.

What is the medical photo dump?

The medical photo dump is exactly what the name suggests: a series of photos showing the poster in a hospital, with an IV drip attached to their arm, or promoting the latest health fad.

Just last month, Bella Hadid posted multiple IV-filled photo dumps alongside her (now-deleted) medical records as a way to update her followers about her hiatus from the modelling world.

Last year, Emma Chamberlain shared images of her eye infection; even Tom Holland posted photos of himself immediately after his wisdom teeth removal.

It doesn’t end there.

Designer Marc Jacobs openly spoke about recovering from a facelift back in 2021, a procedure that was once considered taboo and shrouded in secrecy.

But while posting images straight after having surgery may help to reduce the surrounding stigma, and maybe even give a more realistic view of what recovery is like, when it’s coming from the most influential people in the world, it seeps into dangerous territory, explains psychologist Carly Dober.

"It normalises and encourages plastic surgery, and further shifts the social license into participating in body modifications," she tellsMamamia.

"The younger the audience is, and if their entire feed includes content like this, their views might rapidly shift."

Most recently, we saw Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton promote the expensive and highly inaccessible Prenuvo MRI Scan to their millions of Instagram followers. The test, which will set people back a cool $2,499, has been criticised by experts who say " there’s just no evidence to support" healthy people having full-body MRI scans.

Celebrities handing out unsolicited medical advice online is nothing new. We’ve all seen Gwyneth Paltrow offer bizarre wellness takes and influencers advertise flat tummy teas, but this latest phenomenon of promoting actual procedures is a b