Every spring, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons releases its annual report, which sheds light on trends in the industry. This year’s report reveals that cosmetic procedures are continuing to grow in popularity, up 4% from 2015 to 2016 (though still slightly lower than the number of procedures in 2000).
The top five procedures were breast augmentation, liposuction, nose reshaping, eyelid surgery, and face lifts.
Buttock augmentation is a trend that’s continuing to grow, with buttock implants up 18% and, particularly, buttock augmentation with fat grafting, which was up 26%. If you’re unfamiliar with this kind of procedure, read our page on fat transfer procedures. General lower body lift procedures were also up by 34%.
“One trend we are seeing with fat involves an increase in fat grafting procedures. Plastic surgeons harvest a patient’s unwanted fat from their abdomen using liposuction and then inject it to lift and rejuvenate other areas such as the face, buttock and even the breast,” said ASPS President Debra Johnson, MD. “Because the material injected is the patient’s own fat the results typically last longer than fillers.”
Surprisingly, the procedure that had the highest level of growth was lip reduction, which was up a whopping 283% from last year. Granted, the procedure is relatively new (927 were performed in 2015, 3547 in 2016), which explains the percentage increase. Still, this newcomer will be one to watch.
Labiaplasty was on this ASPS report for the first time (the organization is now tracking the procedure). The procedure, which rejuvenates the labia by lifting and/or injecting fat or filler into the area, increased by 39 percent in 2016, with more than 12,000 procedures.
Breast implant removals were also one of the most quickly growing procedures, up 15% from 2015 to 2016. Last but not least, pectoral implants for men continued to increase in popularity, up by 25% in 2016 over 2015.
On the non-surgical front, the top 5 procedures were mainstays like Botox, soft tissue fillers, chemical peels, and microdermabrasion.
As with the surgical procedures above, one of the fastest growing categories has been soft tissue filler procedures that use fat, which were up 13% last year. It seems that patients are seeing the benefits of fat as a filler, including a natural look and feel.
Injection lipolysis was also up, by 18%, as was non-invasive fat reduction (such as Coolsculpting and Liposonix), by 5%.
The full ASPS report can be found here.
