I’m sure the thought has crossed many of our minds — if only we could change those small things about ourselves that we don’t like. Whether it’s bigger lips, tanned skin or a different nose, we think that the slight shift could give us that extra confidence boost we need.

Well, today we have that option. Fillers, Botox, tanning beds and plastic surgery exist to change just about anything you don’t like about yourself. Many college students utilize these things to change their appearance but often don’t consider the long-term effects they could have on their health.

Perhaps the most widespread and accessible form of body modification for young adults are tanning beds. Salons, gyms and even some apartments offer tanning beds as amenities, and you can often get memberships to encourage regular use.

I don’t want to repeat the obvious — we all know they cause skin cancer. I want to focus more on the health differences between skin damage from a tanning bed compared to getting a tan in the sun.

According to UnityPoint Health, tanning beds emit 12 times more UVA radiation than the sun. UVA radiation is the type of energy emitted from the sun that can deeply penetrate the skin and cause skin cancer and increase signs of aging. The Melanoma Foundation reports that not only does 20 minutes in the tanning beds equal around four hours in the sun with no sun protection, but people who use tanning beds only once a month before the age of 35 increase their melanoma risk by 59%.

While this may seem like a problem for the future, the consequences of tanning bed use may come sooner than you realize. Melanoma is the second most common kind of cancer for young adults aged 15-29, and rates for it are growing faster than nearly any other kind of cancer.

If melanoma is not enough of a reason to stay away from tanning beds, here are other unwanted consequences they can bring, many of which are physical. Tanning beds cause signs of premature aging, such as wrinkles, dark spots and skin having a “leather” appearance. While signs of aging can be delayed, the damage caused by sun beds can often be irreversible.

Tanning beds destroy your skin’s elastin production, which takes up to two years to fully regenerate. However, your natural production of elastin decreases as you age. Halting the production of elastin through tanning beds can make these physical changes irreversible, as reported by dermatologist Dr. Carl Barrick.

Especially as we near the winter months and summer tans begin to fade, many students start making the tanning bed part of their weekly routine. However, is having a summer tan year-round worth the possible risks? Do we want to continue to do something to make ourselves look “better” now, even though it will make us look worse in the future? All factors considered, it may be worth swapping out the tanning bed for a good self-tanner.

Fillers, Botox and other injections are beginning to gain more popularity among college-aged girls. While often used interchangeably, there are key differences between fillers and Botox.

Botox is used to freeze facial muscles, while fillers are used to increase fullness or plump an area. Typically, Botox is used to freeze wrinkles and decrease the appearance of fine lines. However, more recently, I have seen advertisements aimed towards college students for “preventative Botox”.

However, plastic surgeon Dr. James Zins reveals that there actually isn’t much evidence that “preventative botox” works. Botox is not a lifetime solution — it can last three or four months. Once they wear off, your muscles go back to normal. There is no guarantee that starting Botox in your early twenties means that your face won’t develop wrinkles in the first place.

Fillers, on the other hand, seem pretty low-risk. If you can just get them dissolved, how could there be any long-term harm? While for the most part this is true, too much too early can have consequences later on. Most places will tell you that filler lasts anywhere from six to 18 months.

However, a study was done by Dr. Gavin Chan, who has been injecting dermal fillers for 15 years, using MRI technology to study the actual longevity of fillers. While individual factors make it vary from patient to patient, he found that some patients still had remnants of their filler after six to eight years. Not only that, but it had migrated to other parts of their face. This migration leads to patients wanting more filler to offset the look of the migrated filler, and the cycle continues.

Minimally invasive cosmetic procedures, such as fillers and Botox, have been shown to boost self-esteem and confidence in patients. The argument for many college students may be that if the risk seems low, the reward of higher confidence is worth it. However, while your confidence may be high now, will it still be high in 10 years when your filler has migrated, and the years of Botox affect the way your face moves?

Overdone fillers and Botox can end up distorting your face and making you appear older, when in reality, we are at the age that our natural skin is at its healthiest and fullest.

It is impossible to have a discussion on this topic without including the impact social media has had on our perception of ourselves. Social media is often our basis for how we think we “should” look, creating insecurities in ourselves that we never knew we had.

Seeing models and influencers having tanned skin in December, and thick, full lips and cheeks, makes us believe that that is what’s normal in all stages of life. This has caused girls to make these changes to their appearance as soon as they turn 18, built on years of insecurities formed through social media.

We all have insecurities, it is just part of being human. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered a lip flip a time or two, or complained about my pale complexion in the winter.

However, it is important to consider if the solution to our insecurities is from a needle or a tanning bed, or from gradual self-acceptance of our features and reflection about what is actually making us feel insecure about them.

Eating a balanced diet, getting exercise, and engaging in daily hygiene and self-care practices are just small ways you can not only boost your self-esteem, but also increase your overall health as well.

Everyone’s individual features are what come together to make them unique—what fun would life be if everyone looked the same?

Flannery Lemmonds is a Sophomore at UT studying political science. She can be reached at [email protected].

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