Brazilian Bums, New England Noses: Geographical Trends in Cosmetic Surgery
If you had to guess, which country leads the globe in butt augmentation surgery? You’re right, it’s Brazil. In more traditional New England, is surgery on the posterior popular? Not so much.
It turns out, there are geographical trends in plastic surgery just as there are in clothing, furniture, cars and many other choices in life. These trends reflect where we live in terms of weather, lifestyle and values.
The International Scene
Earlier this year, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery released its statistics on cosmetic procedures for 2014, including country-specific trends. According to the ISAPS, the U.S. still leads the way in overall procedures, with Brazil closing fast, Japan in third and South Korea in fourth. (China and India are notably missing, perhaps because of lack of membership in the Society and/or difficulty of obtaining data.) Those standings aren’t too surprising.
The report does reveal a few unexpected figures, however. For instance, although Brazil leads all countries in two out of three surgical categories (face and head, plus body surgery), it ranks a distant third in non-surgical treatments behind the U.S. and Japan. Apparently, when Brazilians want change, they don’t want to mess around with temporary fixes.
Another surprise comes from South Korea. You would be right if you guessed that eyelid surgery is a popular choice there—it accounts for 11% of the country’s total cosmetic procedures. What you might not expect is that rhinoplasty is right behind with over 10% of the total in South Korea. In contrast, in Japan—the other Asian country detailed in the ISAPS report—rhinoplasty accounts for just 3% of all cosmetic procedures.
Closer to Home
The Bangor Daily News examined trends in Maine and the rest of New England compared to other U.S. regions recently. Noting that breast augmentation is the most popular form of cosmetic surgery in many areas of the country—including the West and Midwest, plus Texas and a few adjacent states—nose jobs lead the way among Yankees.
In a little poke at residents of the South Atlantic states, the online newspaper from Maine noted that liposuction is the most popular procedure in that region and concluded that pant size is an issue in Georgia, the Carolinas and areas nearby.
What about Canada? The popular website RealSelf offers trend insights based on its online traffic and reports that Canadian visitors to its site are growing steadily in number. Somewhat surprisingly, 15% of Canadians research breast augmentation, whereas only 10% of U.S. visitors do. That percentage for the U.S. is relatively small—perhaps many women interested in breast enlargement here have already gone under the knife?
Plastic Surgery in New York
As a practice noted for some of the best plastic surgery NYC has to offer—and as a team serving residents of The Big Apple for more than thirty years—we have seen our own share of trends come and go. These days, for instance, we’re welcoming more transgender patients as they elect “top surgery” and other procedures as part of their transformation journeys.
We’re ready with the tried-and-true procedures, of course: liposuction, breast surgery, rhinoplasty and other facial plastic surgery. And we offer the latest in non-invasive treatment too. If we can help you start your own trend, let us know!
