Why did Melania Trump look so different on election day? Plastic surgeon explains first lady’s new face

Former First Lady and ex-model Melania Trump is no stranger to speculation about her appearance, and Election Day was no exception.

When Mrs. Trump appeared with her husband at a polling place near Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, indoors wearing oversized sunglasses, Internet watchers renewed a conspiracy theory that the person was not actually Melania but a body double.

Plastic surgeons who spoke to DailyMail.com set the record straight: Of course it was Melania, but they added that people weren’t wrong for thinking there was something different about her.

Dr. Dennis Schimpf, a cosmetic plastic surgeon based in South Carolina, said Mrs. Trump “probably had additional padding done in anticipation of” her husband’s victory and subsequent media extravaganza.

But according to Dr. Thomas Barnes, a plastic surgeon in Newport Beach, California, she “just looked tired” — likely because she had supported her husband during a grueling election campaign.

Mrs. Trump has vehemently denied ever going under the knife, despite widespread speculation to the contrary.

Board-certified plastic surgeons have previously stated that she likely had fillers in her cheeks, Botox in several areas, a rhinoplasty and a facelift.

At the polling station with her husband, Melania Trump chose to keep her sunglasses on, which a plastic surgeon said could be due to some swelling from injectable filler

The future First Lady has kept a relatively low profile for much of the campaign season, making a rare campaign appearance at the president-elect’s supporters rally at Madison Square Garden last week.

She shocked the Manhattan crowd when her name boomed through the arena, and she took the stage and later told Fox & Friends, “I love New York City… I wanted to support my husband. So I was there for him and for everyone else.”

Dressed in Dior, she smiled politely next to her husband on Tuesday and kept her sunglasses on despite being indoors.

This set off a flood of theories that the person who voted with Trump on Tuesday was not Melania.

But Dr. Barnes said her slimmer-looking jaw and less voluminous cheeks are “consistent with what she’s been through over the past whirlwind of weeks and months.”

“She probably hasn’t been sleeping, she’s probably a little dehydrated on her face, maybe she’s lost some weight.”

It is possible, doctors said, that Mrs. Trump had filler injected into her cheeks to plump up her lower face and smooth out the lines that run from her nose to the corners of her mouth.

As for the sunglasses, Dr. Barnes suspected that a simple makeup mishap, where some mascara or powder got into her eye, left her with red, dry eyes, “which won’t look good on someone who looks like a model .’

The quick fix, he said, is to wear sunglasses, adding that he doubted she would have had surgery or anything more invasive than injectable filler at a time when the media is so closely trained on her.

Dr. Schimpf offered another explanation for the unusual decision to keep her sunglasses on indoors.

He said: ‘She could have had some filler for under the eyes and cheeks. That often causes bruises, so it makes sense that she wears sunglasses.’

Mrs. Trump, pictured last week at her husband’s rally at Madison Square Garden, had noticeably fuller cheeks and deeper nasolabial folds compared to her appearance on Tuesday

To burst even more bubbles, Mrs. Trump took off her glasses for a little press time after she and the now-future president cast their votes.

Dr. Schmipf added that the lines between the sides of her nose and the corners of her mouth appeared much shallower than normal, suggesting that fillers in her cheek lift and support the skin around the mouth and smooth out the wrinkles there.

Her jaw is also noticeably narrower on Election Day than it appeared last week. A wide range of treatment options could have achieved this.

Dr. Brian Reagan, a board-certified plastic surgeon at CosmetiCare in Newport Beach, California, told DailyMail.com that between her appearance in New York and at the polling place, her chin and jawline “appeared narrower than Melania’s typical structure.”

He believes the most likely jaw slimming technique was Morpheus 8, a non-surgical treatment that uses radiofrequency energy and microneedling to tighten the skin around the jawline and stimulate collagen production.

Mrs. Trump also has access to the most advanced skin care products and youth-preserving facials, the most qualified dermatologists, and endless resources to follow a healthy diet and strict exercise regimen, all of which can help prevent visible aging.

The Trump campaign did not return DailyMail.com’s request for comment.