The Principality opens its doors to the most ambitious congress in the world dedicated to aesthetic and anti-ageing medicine. Three days in which science, beauty, and the human condition converge under the Monegasque sky.
The AMWC — Aesthetic & Anti-Aging Medicine World Congress celebrated its 24th edition in Monaco from 26 to 28 March 2026, confirming the Principality as the birthplace of a discipline that refuses to stand still. The numbers speak for themselves: over 18,000 participants, 140 countries represented, 1,000 brands, more than 350 stands, 250 hours of conferences spread across 12 rooms and, for the first time, real-time AI translation into 60 languages. A world congress, in every sense of the word.
When Science Defines Itself
The opening keynotes set the tone with precision and depth. Dr. Thierry Besins, plastic surgeon and Scientific Director of AMWC, took to the stage with a question that seemed deceptively simple: what exactly is aesthetic medicine? His answer unveiled medical, philosophical, and cultural layers, reminding the audience that the discipline is not simply a catalogue of treatments, but a conversation between the doctor and the patient's self-image, between the scalpel and the mirror, between what is and what the patient aspires to become.
Its vision for 2026 charts an ambitious trajectory: to go further in science, international openness, responsibility, and, above all, humanity.
The Wound Beneath the Filter: Body Dysmorphia and the Social Media Era
Perhaps the most intense session of the congress belonged to Dr. Câline Majdalani, whose presentation plunged the room into concentrated silence. Her topic: the epidemic of dissatisfaction fuelled by social media, and the growing crisis of dysmorphophobia — that distorted perception of one's own appearance that drives patients to seek treatments not by choice, but by compulsion.
The data she presented were sobering and unsettling: 1.2 billion people worldwide live with some form of mental disorder today. Aesthetic medicine, she argued with quiet conviction, cannot advance unless it walks hand in hand with mental health. The syringe and the psychologist's couch are not opposites – they are allies, and the 2026 congress has made this truth harder to ignore than ever.
To explore the intersection of aesthetics and wellbeing, discover our Lifestyle section.
Ozempic, GLP-1 and the Face of Longevity
The molecule of the moment took centre stage in Monaco through the words of Dr. Steven Dayan, a renowned American plastic surgeon, who dissected the phenomenon that has dominated aesthetic medicine discussions for two years: the so-called Ozempic face. The rapid weight loss induced by GLP-1 agonists leaves its mark on the face: hollow cheeks, accelerated ptosis, a gauntness that no filler can fully correct.
Dayan guided the audience through causes, concerns, and emerging treatments, weaving in the latest data on next-generation oral GLP-1 molecules: high-dose oral semaglutide, FDA-approved late 2025, with an average weight loss of 16.6% at 64 weeks; and Novo Nordisk's GLP-1/amylin combination, icretin, already progressing to Phase 3 with a 24% drop in non-diabetics. The skin-brain connection, he suggested, is not metaphorical, it is physiological, and understanding it is the next frontier.
When the Mathematics Lifts the Bonnet of Beauty
One of the most unexpected, and most exciting, moments of the congress came from Dr Clio Cresswell, an Australian doctor of mathematics and statistics, who posed a question that few in the room had dared to ask: when artificial intelligence defines beauty, what standards does it uphold? Whose face does it erase?
Her talk, “When AI defines beauty: a mathematician lifts the bonnet,” dismantled algorithms with the same precision of a proof. The result was unsettling and necessary, a reminder that the codes we feed machines carry the prejudices we haven't yet resolved within ourselves.
AMWC Catalyst: The Innovations That Will Make Tomorrow's Headlines
On Saturday 28th March, the congress reserved its most audacious finale for the AMWC Catalyst session, an invitation-only showcase of aesthetic medicine's most promising innovations, each presented in a tight and decisive format: 12 minutes for presentation, 3 minutes for Q&A.
Among the eight companies that took to the stage: Syntr Health Technologies with automated fat tissue preparation; MedDrop and the physics of needle-free drug delivery; Erbazeta with Collagendep, Italian science applied to global protocols; Wonder, redefining body contouring in the longevity era; and The Beauty Health Company with the latest clinical innovations from Hydrafacial.
Chaired by Benoit Chardon, an expert in aesthetic medicine and Founder CEO of BCC, the session embodied the congress's guiding promise: “Discover today the innovations that will make tomorrow's headlines.”
To register for upcoming editions of AMWC: amwc-conference.com
Monaco: The Permanent Stage of Global Ambition
As the final slide of the closing ceremony faded into the hall's cobalt light, the words Innovation, Excellence, Expansion hung in the air like a chord refusing to resolve, a truth settled upon the audience: the AMWC had long since outgrown its own boundaries.
A world map projected onto the screen traced the constellation of upcoming congresses across five continents. Monaco remains the centre of gravity – the birthplace, the cardinal point. But the discipline it has nurtured now orbits far beyond the Principality's borders, carrying with it the rigour, humanity, and restless curiosity that have defined this congress since its very first edition.
Why in Monaco, as in aesthetic medicine, standing still is never an option
