The American Society of Plastic Surgery has released its 2012 plastic surgery statistics for the United States. This survery is widely considered to be the best available data on how many procedures are performed each year. Plastic surgeons report how many procedures they did and the polling company tabulates data with statistical predictions based on numbers of surverys returned, etc.
The numbers for 2012 are interesting. I will summarize here.
Interestingly total numbers of surgical procedures across the country were down 2%.
The top five surgical procedures in the United States were:
1) Breast augmentation with 286,000 procedures performed. This is down 7% from 2011 but up 35% since 2000. An interesting tidbit is that 62% of the augmentations were silicone based and 38% were saline. This is 572,000 implants or over half a million implants used in 2012! Breast augmentation remains the most popular surgical procedure in the United States and certainly it is the most popular procedure that I perform.
2) Rhinoplasty is the second most popular procedure in 2012. All year long we heard about women requesting Kate Middleton’s nose. 242,000 rhinoplasties were estimated to be performed in 2012 which was unchanged from 2011. In 2011 rhinoplasty was also the second most common procedure. I do not perform rhinoplasty as my second most common procedure and don’t even notice this trend in the surgical histories of my plastic surgery patients and yet the data consistently reports this as the second most common procedure year after year.
3) Liposuction was the third most common procedure and still noted to be down 1% at 202,000 procedures. This is an interesting number. I suspect much more liposuction is done in the United States than the statistics reveal as there are so many non-plastic surgeons doing liposuction in their offices these days. I might go out on a limb and say that if 202,000 liposuction surgeries were performed by ASPS plastic surgeons another 50% easily would have been performed by the med-spa docs under local anesthesia in their offices. It would be interesting to compare this statistic to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery who have many non-ASPS surgeons listed to see what their numbers show for this.
4&5) Eyelid and Facelift surgery were #4 and #5 this year. There were 204,000 eyelid surgeries and 124,000 facelift surgeries tallied.
Interestingly abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) came in at #6 with 106,000 procedures performed. My top three procedures in my practice are breast augmentation, liposuction, and abdominoplasty but I have a mainly younger “mommy-makeover” practice and younger ladies do not tend to be ready for facelifts.
The minimally invasive or injectable “Top Five” included:
1) Botox up 8 percent to 6.1 million procedures
2) Fillers up 5 percent to 2 million procedures (most popular being Juvederm and Restylane)
3) Chemical Peel up 2 percent to 1.1 million procedures
4) Laser Hair Removal up 4 percent to 1.1. million procedures
5) Microdermabrasion up 8 percent to almost a million procedures.
I once again do not believe the numbers for 3,4, and 5 as many of these procedures are performed by aestheticians, technicians, nurses, and doctors of all types in clinics and spas throughout the country. Thus, when saying that laser hair is less popular than Botox I do not know if these numbers truly represent the truth. Yes, in plastic surgeon’s offices this is true, but what about elsewhere? Lots of places offer hair removal that don’t even offer Botox. I have even seen some hair removal machines offered for home use and while I doubt they work well, the numbers are certainly not included here.
This represents a total 6% increase in the minimally invasive procedure group which continues to be less expensive and less of a recovery as well as of course less risk. The smaller procedures while providing less of a result than a surgery will likely continue to be popular every year as they are quick and easy and relatively affordable.
Well, that’s the numbers and my comments! I will predict that 2013 will continue to grow as patients and their friends realize the benefits we have to offer!