US plastic surgeries rise for second straight year

The number of Americans getting nips and tucks rose in 2011 for the second straight year despite difficult economic times, a major US plastic surgeons' groups said on Thursday.

A total of 13.8 million procedures, including everything from facelifts to boob jobs to anti-wrinkle injections, were performed in 2011 in the United States, up five percent over 2010.

"While the rate of economic recovery in the US is still uncertain, 2011 proved to be a good year for plastic surgery," said American Society of Plastic Surgeons president Malcolm Roth.

"Consumer confidence was up, auto sales rose 10 percent, so it is not surprising that we would also see increased demand for plastic surgery procedures."

Breast augmentation remained the most popular operation, up four percent to 307,000 procedures last year, said the annual data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Facelifts made it to the top five for the first time since 2004, ousting tummy tucks for fifth place after nose reshaping, liposuction, and eyelid surgery.

Among men, a surgery to remove the double chin effect of extra neck skin nearly doubled in 2011 over a year earlier, with 21,000 such procedures.

Lip augmentation also rose 49 percent to more that 25,000 procedures performed.

Roth said the rise in surgical procedures, up two percent over a year earlier to 1.6 operations, "reflect the demands of an aging boomer population."

However, the overall growth in the industry is being driven by minimally-invasive procedures, which rose six percent to nearly 12.2 million procedures in 2011.

Botox injections, soft tissue fillers to remove laugh lines and wrinkles, chemical peels, laser hair removal and microdermabrasion were the most popular image boosters for Americans.

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