Surgery: The Hard Numbers on Plastic Surgery

The Hard Numbers on Plastic Surgery

Surgery: Plastic Surgery

From reality television to spruced up celebrities, there is little doubt plastic surgery is popular these days. Words are cheap, however, so here are the numbers on plastic surgery.

The Hard Numbers on Plastic Surgery

If you watch television, surf the Web or listen to any radio station, you can definitely see that plastic surgery is extremely popular. There are reality shows devoted to extreme plastic surgery makeovers and the tales of plastic surgery gone wrong, and many patients have developed websites to tell their own plastic surgery stories. But just how common is having these sorts of cosmetic procedures? Here are some numbers on plastic surgery that really show how many people are going under the knife.

The 2004 numbers on plastic surgery show that there were 11.9 million surgical and non-invasive cosmetic procedures performed that year (statistics provided by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery). This represents a 44 percent increase over the amount of people that had similar procedures in the year 2003. Of the 11.9 million procedures performed, 18 percent were surgical (while the remaining were procedures such as injections or dermabrasion).

From the year 1997 to the year 2004, there was a 465 percent increase in the total number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States, and a 118 percent increase in the number of surgical cosmetic procedures. 90 percent of the total 11.9 million cosmetic procedures performed in 2004 took place on female patients, which amounted to 10.7 million procedures.

The numbers on plastic surgery for the year 2004 also show the top five surgical procedures that took place during that year. They were: liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, rhinoplasty, and facelift. The top five non-surgical cosmetic procedures were as follows: Botox injections, laser hair removal, chemical peel, microdermabrasion, and hyaluronic acid (Restylane) injections. Most of these procedures took place on people aged 35-50 - 45 percent of the total amount of people who had cosmetic procedures.

The amount of people getting cosmetic procedures, both surgical and non-invasive, has been steadily increasing every year. With the numbers clearly showing that many people prefer non-surgical procedures over those that require surgery, medical science is sure to be developing more and more non-invasive solutions to cosmetic issues.

Ricardo de Silva is with PlasticSurgeonPractices.com - a directory of plastic surgeons.