Cosmetic Surgery is popular in Encino

I have never convinced any women not to have a nose job. I tried a few times but I always failed. Now I know more women who’ve had a nose job than those who haven’t. I find this depressing.

Cosmetic surgeries are down 17% nationally over the past year, reports the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (here). The recession takes its toll. Since many plastic surgeons operate in Encino this has had a chilling effect on the local economy. Here’s the top 8 procedures ranked in popularity:

1. Boob jobs are down 12%
2. Liposuctions are down 18%
3. Eyelid surgery is down 23%
4. Nose jobs are down 9%
5. Tummy tucks are down 13%
6. Breast reductions are down 19%
7. Breast lifts are down 15%
8. Facelifts are down 29%

If you’ll pardon the pun, the only two procedures to show huge increases were butt augmentation and butt lifts. As people lose weight they want to reshape their butts, but these came in #18 and #19 on the list. Popular non-surgical procedures such as Botox injections were flat, so to speak.

There were 10 million of these procedures in the U.S. last year. How many were really necessary? 90% of them were women and looking at the stats for boob jobs, it claims about 40% of those were for cosmetic reasons. I was a bit surprised to see that 24% were for “severe asymmetry.” But I don’t believe these figures – what, only 40% were cosmetic? Among the men, liposuction came in on top, followed by nose jobs, eyelid surgery, breast reduction and hair transplants, plus Botox was really big. Oy veh.

Update for 2010 - apparently as the economy improves, so does business for plastic surgeons. In 2010, business was up modestly over 2009 across all surgeries although still down from the peak in 2005. Non-surgical cosmetic procedures (botox, laser hair removal) also continue to grow more rapidly - for both men and women.