The Behavioral Inflection Point in Aesthetic Dermatology: A Global Infodemiology Study on the Impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Procedure Trends and Sentinel Complications
Abstract
ObjectiveThe global surge in minimally invasive aesthetic procedures has been paralleled by an unprecedented shift in patient digital health-seeking behaviour, catalysed by the public release of Large Language Models (LLMs) in November 2022. The infodemiological signature of this transition, particularly its impact on complication awareness and do-it-yourself (DIY) aesthetic practices remains uncharacterised at the population level. This study aimed to quantify the infodemiological impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) adoption on patient digital search behaviour in aesthetic dermatology, comparing Pre-AI and Post-AI periods through a validated retrospective infodemiology framework.Material and MethodsRelative Search Volume (RSV) data for 15 search terms across four categories were extracted from Google Trends (GT) under the "Health" category filter over an 84-month continuous time series (January 2019–December 2025). November 2022, corresponding to the global launch of ChatGPT (OpenAI, San Francisco, USA), served as the statistical cut-off, defining Pre-AI (January 2019–October 2022; n=46 months) and Post-AI (November 2022–December 2025; n=38 months) cohorts. Between-period RSV differences were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test (SciPy library, Python Software Foundation, Wilmington, USA). Statistical significance was set at p
