A recent study released by the prestigous American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery has revealed some interesting findings on the public perceptions of plastic surgery. And remember, we are talking here about cosmetic plastic surgery, not necessarily reconstructive plastic surgery where the decision to have surgery is not completely controlled by the patient.
In a report based on a survery of 1,000 people over the age of 18 polled, the main findings were: 1) Young adults between 18 – 24 years of age have the highest approval rating of cosmetic surgery while those over age 65 had the lowest approval rating (not surpising for all the generational gap reasons), 2) Women are much more likely to have cosmetic surgery than men (which is why about 85% of my practice is women), 3) Nearly 80% of respondents said they were not embarrassed to say or tell others that they had cosmetic surgery (again, an issue of more common acceptance today), 4) 16% said their attitude over the past five years about cosmetic surgery had become more favorable, and 5) Men and women with children are more likely to consider cosmetic surgery than those without. (makes sense as childbearing does take a toll on many women’s bodies)
While there were not great revelations in this study that could not have been predicted, it does lend credence to the increasing numbers of plastic surgery procedures being performed with more than 11 million cosmetic procedures done in the U.S. in 2007.
With the state of the economy here in 2008 and a presidential election year, it will be interesting to see what that number is for 2008.
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana