Plastic Surgery Statistics Show Surprising Results

With Hollywood putting increasing pressure on society and reality shows obsessing over body image, high percentages of the masses have been inspired to go under the knife seeking nips here and tucks there to spruce up the reflection they see in the mirror. Some plastic surgeries are corrective and some are for medical reasons beyond the superficiality of its stigma. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) recently released their 2008 statistics with some surprising results perhaps due to the dwindling economy.

Cosmetic surgery procedures mostly declined during 2008 at least 10 percent and in some cases more, there is an interesting fairly new procedure that rose a bit during the last year. Alan Gold, MD, President of ASAPS says that the reason for the smaller numbers from 2008 is obviously the recession we have all been facing, “It's clearly the economy, and people's concerns about their future income, their time off from work to have a procedure, and recovery from that," Gold hopes that once the economy bounces back the cosmetic procedures both surgical and nonsurgical will most likely as well, “Maybe not this year—it might be next year.”

The plastic surgery downturn has been a lose-lose because patients are putting off their procedures to wait for a financial upturn so it’s a loss for plastic surgeons and their clinics as well as a loss for those struggling to find or keep work in the United States economy as Dr. Alan Gold says that older people are trying to secure positions in the job market for longer and turning to cosmetic needs to help them do that.

With a 12 percent decline in cosmetic surgery demand over the last year in America, professionals reassure that the numbers are not as low as they were a decade ago before the boom. One of the most popular procedures, the numbing agent Botox which is injected most commonly into the face to fill in wrinkles was almost 10 percent lower than ASAPS 2007 statistics but surgeries took the biggest hit over nonsurgical alterations.

On the other hand, we shouldn’t feel that bad for plastic surgery as there were still over 10 million (10,258,557 to be exact) procedures done in 2008—only a 1,442,474 difference from 2007—and a trend has continued to shape bodies with a new top dog. Breast augmentation finally reached the number one spot over liposuctions for the first time ever in record. Rounding out the top five after breast augmentation and liposuction were: cosmetic eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, and a tummy tuck.

Besides the popular cup-size boost, another positive in the report was the surprise upshoot of laser skin resurfacing which uses a quick and easy procedure different from earlier versions with the same results. Over 500,000 laser resurfacings were done in 2008—number five of the top five nonsurgical procedures following Botox, laser hair removal, hyaluronic acid (including Restylane), and chemical peels—most likely because of their less expensive price tag and small amount of recovery time.

While many people turn to nips and tucks to revive their lives, fortunately for right now in my life I have only turned to the television series Nip/Tuck to watch over-the-top characters perform unbelievable cosmetic surgeries and live in posh mansions with ridiculous storylines, which is probably where the reality shows learned drama. With the ASAPS survey showing that 62 percent of women and 51 percent of men overall approve of cosmetic surgery, and 40 percent of women and 18 percent of men actually considering it either now or in the future, even though the trends may change, cosmetic surgery is not going anywhere for a very long time.

If you would like to read the entire report from ASAPS including percentages of each type of procedure broken down by patient age and many other interesting facts, pricing info, trends and numbers, go to their website or download the PDF here.