State Secrets: Plastic Surgery Popularity in the U.S.
There are several magazine-like websites that cover plastic surgery. They typically offer a combination of articles covering procedure information, international cosmetic surgery and the ubiquitous topic of celebrity plastic surgery.
Then there are the pieces that spot trends, or try to. One of these sites recently published a fun little article giving a state-by-state look at the most frequently “Googled” cosmetic surgery procedures. Let’s have a look at what the site reports.
It does not surprise us to read that the most frequently searched procedure is liposuction. In New York and a few other northeastern states, when people sit down at the computer to read about cosmetic surgery, they most often investigate liposuction. In our New York practice, liposuction is very popular with both men and women; hence it’s a procedure we perform quite often.
According to the article outlining state trends, liposuction leads the way in a total of 15 states. Along with ultra style-conscious places like New York, liposuction is also popular in Delaware and Maryland.
It’s interesting to note that there’s a large group of next-door neighbor states where liposuction is also the leading plastic surgery search term. In nine southern states from Texas to Florida and north to Tennessee and North Carolina, people want to know more about liposuction. Interestingly, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that eight of those states showed obesity/overweight rates of at least 30% in 2015. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are three of the four “fattest” in the country. Among the nine southern states where liposuction searches rule, only Florida has a population that is less than 30% overweight.
Given this information, it may make sense that people in the South read up on liposuction more than other cosmetic surgery options. We just hope they realize that liposuction is not a weight loss strategy.
If you follow statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, you know that breast augmentation and liposuction are always neck and neck for the top spot in plastic surgery popularity. It makes sense, then, that breast augmentation is the next most frequently used search term measured state-by-state.
Probably everyone can come up with one of the 10 states where women search for information on breast enlargement—you got it, California! It’s not so obvious, however, why breast augmentation is the most often researched procedure in states like Vermont, Nebraska and Montana.
Leading search terms in some states are indeed perplexing. Apparently lip enhancement is the most often researched procedure in three states. That’s a surprise. Even stranger is the fact that these states neighbor each other: Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.
In three other states, people seem to be focused on changing their genitals. In North Dakota, the most popular plastic surgery search term is vaginal rejuvenation. Go figure. And penis enlargement is the most popular term in both Alaska and Hawaii. We won’t even begin to speculate on that one.
One thing to keep in mind is that the information presented in this article is about Google searches, not the actual numbers of people who elect the procedures they investigate.
To find out information on what’s really happening in plastic surgery in the U.S. today, we recommend prospective patients check out the websites of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. While these two organizations obviously promote plastic surgery, the information they provide patients is accurate and helpful. What’s more, they represent board certified plastic surgeons—professionals with the highest level of credentials in the country.
If you’re a resident of the Big Apple or you’re planning a trip to New York, and liposuction, breast augmentation or even lip enhancement is on your mind, contact us!
