Plastic surgery down but not out

The 2008 statistics were released this week from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), which represents board-certified plastic surgeons who devote most of their practice to aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery. It’s an annual ritual and the numbers are dissected every which way to see what they imply about trends in plastic surgery and society as a whole. The statistics also measure nonsurgical cosmetic procedures.
So what’s the big news this year? Surgical procedures overall were down for the first time, by about 15% overall, which isn’t any great surprise given the economic climate. What few expected though was that breast augmentation is now the number one surgical procedure, overtaking liposuction, which has held the number one spot since ASAPS first started collecting the data 12 years ago. One likely explanation for the rise of breast augmentation (more than 350,000 cases last year) relates to the FDA clearance of silicone implants a little over 2 years ago. Since they give more natural results for many women, there may have been a sort of pent-up demand, and some women unhappy with their saline implants may have been changing to silicone. In a broader sense though, there is just more comfort now that silicone is in fact safe and people just tired of hearing otherwise when the science gave the implants a clean bill of health years ago.
There is a bigger message in the statistics if you look back over the past few years. Even though plastic surgery has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium, nonsurgical procedures such as Botox and dermal fillers have increased some 750%. The rise of cosmetic medicine, and the inevitable decline of more invasive procedures will be the theme in coming years. Of course there is a long way to go before nonsurgical procedures can truly compete in terms of results, but there are compelling benefits if they can. For now, it is one big happy family since the medical procedures for the most part do what surgery can’t and vice-versa, but watch for big changes down the road.