It’s hard to pinpoint why trends in plastic surgery shift over time. There are just too many factors: changes in beauty standards, innovations in technology and shifting costs all contribute. And while usually these changes are gradual, especially in more conservative plastic surgery markets like Pittsburgh, sometimes the trends can be pretty dramatic. Here are five big shifts seen in the American Society of Plastic Surgeon’s 2014 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, that we here at Beleza Plastic Surgery found interesting.
Breast Augmentations: Up. Implant Removals: Down.
In the year 2000, the ASPS reported 212,500 breast augmentations. In 2014, that number shot up to 286,254, a 35 percent shift upwards in 14 years. Breast augmentation is by far the most popular cosmetic plastic surgery procedure, and it is certainly among the top procedures Dr. Wooten performs.
Meanwhile, breast implant removals have gone down 42 percent in the same time period, from 40,787 to 23,774. While it’s hard to peg down why this has happened, it’s clear that more people are happier about their breast implants now than they used to be.
Procedures Targeted at Men are Up
While the vast majority of people who undergo plastic surgery are women, there’s been a significant rise in procedures targeted at men as well. Male breast reduction (surgery that treats gynecomastia) rose 14 percent in the past year, and pectoral implants rose from 342 to 1,054, a 208 percent increase.
Buttock Augmentation is Way Up
While buttock augmentation is still a long way away from rivaling breast augmentation in terms of popularity, it definitely made a strong showing in 2014. Buttock augmentation has achieved rising popularity, due to, in part, the hype surrounding the derrieres of some of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities, like Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj, and, of course, the classic Jennifer Lopez. Last year, buttock augmentation with fat grafting shot up to 11,505 procedures, buttock lifts rose to 3,505 and buttock implants increased to 1,863, a 98 percent increase from 2013.
More People are Targeting Sagging Skin
Since the year 2000, there has been a renewed interest in dramatic weight loss (“The Biggest Loser,” for example, premiered in 2004). So perhaps it’s no surprise that more people are using plastic surgery to remove the excess skin that can be left behind after they shed some fat.
Since 2000, lower body lifts have risen from 207 procedures to 7,779 in 2014. That’s a 3,658 percent shift. Upper arm lifts (brachioplasty), meanwhile, have gone from 338 in 2000 to 16,205 in 2014, a 4,694 percent increase in just under a decade and a half.
Botox is on the Rise
Botox and other procedures like it have shown unparalleled popularity in the past 14 years. The procedures, which counter wrinkles, frown lines and crow’s feet, easily topped the ASPS’s rankings of minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures. Over 6.5 million procedures were performed in 2014, a 748 percent rise from the year 2000, in which nearly 800,000 people sought Botox or similar procedures. In our Pittsburgh office, the demand for Botox has remained constant.
Interested in reading the rest of the report? Check it out on plasticsurgery.org!