7 Interesting Facts about Cosmetic Surgery ...

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I was amazed, and a little sad, to learn that, in 2009, women had 91% of all cosmetic procedures, leaving only 9% of procedures being done on men. To me, that says women are much more concerned about their appearance… and that makes me sad.

All teenagers are beautiful, and so many of them just don’t realize it. They have their youth, their shine, but to many of them, their own youthful, natural beauty isn’t enough, and they increasingly opt for cosmetic surgery. Last year, 2% of all cosmetic procedures were done on people aged 13 – 19, and the most popular procedures were laser hair removal, nose reshaping, laser treatment of leg veins, and laser skin resurfacing.

Nearly half of all cosmetic procedures done in 2009 were for people aged 40 to 54 years. That’s not surprising, I suppose, but the sheer number of them is a little overwhelming: 5.7 million procedures. 5.2 million of them were minimally invasive, and the other half a million required surgery.

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Nowadays, laser procedures are becoming a much more viable, less invasive alternative to traditional surgical cosmetic procedures. Cosmetic procedures that used to require dangerous anesthesia, long, complicated surgeries, and painful recoveries, now take a matter of minutes with no or little anesthesia and virtually no recovery time. It’s faster, safer, less expensive, and a lot less painful. Lasers are especially popular for skin treatments, like laser microdermabrasion, resurfacing, and leg vein treatment.

The 12.5 million procedures done in 2009 had a total cost of $10 billion. That’s an average cost of only $800 per procedure, which means of course that many procedures were a lot more expensive, but some were even less. It seems that cosmetic procedures that were only possible for wealthy socialites are now available to just about anyone who can save up.

More than a decade after silicone breast implants were thought to be increase the risk of lupus and other auto-immune disorders, breast augmentation is still the most popular of all cosmetic procedures, up 36% from the year 2000. Half of the implants used in those augmentations are still silicone, and that figure in on the rise.

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In case you missed it above, the total amount spent on cosmetic surgery last year was ten BILLION dollars. That’s a lot of money, more than the entire Federal Higher Education budget in 2001. Apparently, we women are willing to spend a lot to look as amazing as we do!

Those are a few of the interesting facts I found in the media “quick facts” sheet on the American Society of Plastic Surgeons website… if you’re interested in cosmetic surgery yourself, it’s a great site to visit, with so much information! Which of these facts did you find surprising? Or do you have another tidbit to share? Please let me know!

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