
	Home	Procedure Guide	Before & After Photo Gallery	Locate a Plastic Surgeon	Forum & Chat Community	News & Features

News and Features > 11.5 Million Cosmetic Procedures in 2006

News and Features

11.5 Million Cosmetic Procedures in 2006

American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports slight increase from 2005

March 9, 2007
Press release from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS)

NEW YORK, NY — Nearly 11.5 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2006, according to statistics released today by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). Compared to 2005, cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical increased 1 percent. The Aesthetic Society, which has been collecting multi-specialty procedural statistics since 1997 says the overall number of cosmetic procedures has increased 446 percent since the collection of the statistics first began. The most frequently performed procedure was Botox injections and the most popular surgical procedure was liposuction.

"The FDA approval of silicone breast implants in late 2006 seems to have made an impact, as silicone implants are up 18 percent from 2005. For the first time breast augmentation is the top surgical procedure for women, although lipoplasty continues to be the top overall surgical procedure as it has been since the Aesthetic Society started collecting nationwide procedural statistics in 1997," said Aesthetic Society president James Stuzin, MD. "Furthermore, as the safety and efficacy of the nonsurgical procedures on the market continue to improve the numbers of those procedures performed by board-certified plastic surgeons continues to rise year after year."

Trends and Demographic Data

Top surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures among men and women in 2006:

Surgical	# procedures	Nonsurgical	# procedures
Liposuction	403,684	Botox	3,181,592
Breast augmentation	383,886	Hyaluronic acid (Hylaform, Restylane)	1,593,554
Eyelid surgery	209,999	Laser hair removal	1,475,296
Abdominoplasty	172,457	Microdermabrasion	993,071
Female breast reduction	169,314	Laser skin resurfacing	556,172

Top cosmetic procedures for WOMEN:

Surgical	# procedures	Nonsurgical	# procedures
Breast augmentation	383,885	Botox	2,881,119
Lipoplasty	350,420	Hyaluronic acid (Hylaform, Restylane)	1,519,923
Eyelid surgery	182,397	Laser hair removal	1,308,739
Abdominoplasty	164,800	Microdermabrasion	921,970
Breast reduction	145,822	Sclerotherapy	541,291

Women had 92 percent of cosmetic procedures. The number of procedures (surgical and nonsurgical) performed on women was over 10.5 million, an increase of 1 percent from the previous year. Surgical procedures decreased 9 percent; nonsurgical procedures decreased 4 percent. Since 1997, surgical procedures increased 123 percent, while nonsurgical procedures have increased 749 percent.

Top cosmetic procedures for MEN:

Surgical	# procedures	Nonsurgical	# procedures
Liposuction	53,263	Botox	300,472
Rhinoplasty	33,143	Laser hair removal	166,557
Eyelid surgery	27,602	Hyaluronic acid (Hylaform, Restylane)	73,634
Male breast reduction	23,670	Microdermabrasion	71,102
Facelift	14,051	Laser skin resurfacing	48,451

Men had 8 percent of cosmetic procedures. The number of procedures (surgical and nonsurgical) performed on men was nearly 1 million, a decrease of 5 percent from the previous year. Surgical procedures decreased 9 percent; nonsurgical procedures decreased 3 percent. Since 1997, surgical procedures have decreased 2%, while nonsurgical procedures have increased 722 percent.

Frequency of cosmetic procedures by AGE GROUP:

Age	% of total	# procedures	Top surgical procedure	Top nonsurgical procedure
35-50	47	4.5 million	Liposuction	Botox
51-64	26	2.9 million	Eyelid surgery	Botox
19-34	20	2.5 million	Breast augmentation	Laser hair removal
65 and over	5	589,229	Eyelid surgery	Botox
18 and under	1	178,041	Rhinoplasty	Laser hair removal

Racial and Ethnic Distribution

Racial and ethnic minorities accounted for 21.7 percent of all cosmetic procedures in 2006. Hispanics again led minority racial and ethnic groups in the number of procedures: Hispanics, 9.7 percent; African-Americans, 6.6 percent; Asians, 4.7 percent; and other non-Caucasians, 0.8 percent.

Location and Fees

46 percent of cosmetic procedures in 2006 were performed in office-based facilities; 28.9 percent in freestanding surgicenters; and 24.8 percent in hospitals. Americans spent just under $12.2 billion on cosmetic procedures; $7.6 billion was for surgical procedures, and $4.5 billion was for nonsurgical procedures.

About the ASAPS Cosmetic Surgery National Data Bank

ASAPS, working with an independent research firm, compiled 10-year national data for procedures performed 1997-2006 by multiple specialists, including but not limited to plastic surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. More than 14,000 questionnaires were mailed nationwide, and results of the survey were used to project national data. The survey data has a standard error of +/- 3.14 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.

return to News and Features

Locate a plastic surgeon in your area: