As more patients seek out less-invasive procedures, the idea of plastic surgery doesn’t seem so odd anymore
In just 10 years, cosmetic surgery has undergone a serious makeover. A one-time exotic procedure reserved for the well-to-do-with-nothing-to-do has become more specialized and accessible.
And by the looks of things — namely noses, bellies, eyelids and breasts — we’re going for it. A new report by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says that in 2008, U.S. plastic surgeons performed 1.7 million cosmetic surgical procedures. It’s down a bit from previous years (1.8 million in 2007), but it’s far from sagging.
Separate from those numbers are procedures that have been keeping plastic surgeons busy: less-invasive cosmetic tuneups such as Botox injections, chemical peels and microdermabrasions.
Demand for these smaller-scale procedures has grown 90 percent since 2000, when they were introduced to a population more than happy to erase a few of its smile lines.
“The big evolution in plastic surgery in the past decade has been the introduction of these less-invasive options,” said Dr. Scott Spear, professor and chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Georgetown University Hospital.
“I think a lot of [facial] surgeons have maybe seen their practices shift to more of the noninvasive stuff,” Spear added. “The more aggressive surgical result isn’t necessarily the one that everybody’s looking for.”
The popularity of these smaller procedures has made the larger ones such as breast enhancement and liposuction less of an issue.
“It’s very commonly accepted,” said Dr. Deborah Bash, a plastic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. “People talk about it at cocktail parties; they tell each other in grocery store lines what they had done. It’s not a big secret.”
So what procedures are being chatted up in the freezer section?
The most popular cosmetic surgical procedures for women in 2008 were breast augmentation and liposuction, according to the plastic surgeons group. For men, nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) was at the top, followed by eyelid surgery.
As for whom patients most want to look like, the apparent answer is: themselves.
“Most people think that plastic surgery is just pure vanity, that you’re trying to look above average,” Bash said. “But I’d say 95 percent of my patients just want to be average.”
Bash said her patients are often women who want to firm up their breasts or abdomens after childbirth. “They just want to get back to the appearance they had before, get back what they used to have,” she added.
She and Spear agree that the perception of plastic surgery as something eccentric and vain is waning.
Spear says appearance is a fact and factor of life. It makes a difference in how we view parks, cars, houses and lawns.
“We do place a value on appearance, so when someone has a feature they feel detracts from their appearance, they often may be right,” he said. “And when we can improve that feature it’s a very positive thing. I know [some] people would like to diminish the value of that, but people don’t think twice about putting flowers on their porch. It’s just another way of trying to enhance your presence.”
A cut above?
Number of procedures performed in 2008
» 12.1 million cosmetic procedures.
» 1.6 million cosmetic surgical procedures
» 10.4 million cosmetic minimally invasive procedures
Top Five Surgical Cosmetic Procedures in 2008
» Breast augmentation (307,000)
» Nose reshaping (279,000)
» Liposuction (245,000)
» Eyelid surgery (221,000)
» Tummy tuck (122,000)
Top Five Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures in 2008
» Botox (5 million)
» Hyaluronic acid (1.1 million)
» Chemical peel (1 million)
» Laser hair removal (892,000)
» Microdermabrasion (842,000)
Source: American Society of Plastic Surgeons, March 2009
Joe Tougas has written for The Blueroad Reader, The Mankato (Minn.) Free Press and Minnesota State University TODAY.
