While generally most people are hesitant to admit to receiving plastic surgery and body modification, and the topics can often be the subject of celebrity scandals, more Americans are electing to have cosmetic surgical procedures than ever before. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that Americans spent more than $15 billion dollars in 2016 on combined surgical and nonsurgical aesthetic procedures for the first time ever, accounting for an 11% increase over the past year alone. Why has plastic surgery seen such an increase in popularity, and what are the potential consequences of this growing cosmetic trend?
The Growing Appeal Of Cosmetic Surgery
As medical science advances, cosmetic procedures that were once invasive, time-consuming, and expensive are now becoming simple in-office processes. Similarly, results have gradually become more impressive and realistic over time, giving those seeking cosmetic surgery an increased likelihood of a positive outcome. For those looking to make a change to their appearance, the updates have made cosmetic surgery even more appealing.
For example, many people looking for weight loss or fat reduction struggle with maintaining a high enough activity level to see results. Around 28% of Americans, or 80.2 million people, aged six and older are physically inactive. While previously, fat reduction surgery meant large amounts of recovery time and high medical bills, more options have recently been entering the market to make these procedures more feasible for this demographic.
What Procedures Are Being Done?
Weight loss and fat reduction aren’t the only types of procedures seeing an increase as of late. Many are using cosmetic surgery to reverse or prevent common physical signs of aging. Modern, minimally invasive hair transplants are now becoming a popular option among both men and women seeking a solution to hair loss. During the Follicular Unit Extraction or FUE hair transplant procedure, individual follicular unit grafts are harvested one at a time using a tiny punch typically ranging from .7 to 1 millimeter in size. This process is far less invasive and leaves little to no scarring in comparison to older methods of hair transplants, making it more common and popular today.
Similarly, many younger demographics are now seeking to undo permanent changes to their body that they had previously made. Because of the growing acceptance and popularity of tattoos, many more are also now seeking to remove tattoos they had received in the past. Around 14% of Americans of all ages have at least one tattoo, and while acceptance is on the rise, many more are choosing to remove their visible tattoos for the sake of employment or other social factors via laser tattoo removal.
The Dangers Of Seeking Perfection
While advances in cosmetic medicine are generally beneficial, the rise in popularity of cosmetic surgeries has led some to take their pursuit of physical perfection to the extreme. Some are even showing signs of addiction to cosmetic surgery, receiving shocking amounts of procedures in order to achieve often unattainable ideals or attempt to prevent any signs of aging whatsoever. While acceptance of voluntary cosmetic surgery has many benefits, there are also potentially dangerous consequences for a select few individuals.
With research and procedures advancing at an unprecedented rate, cosmetic surgeries continue to become popular and more accessible among a wider demographic. While it is difficult to tell what the future holds for this field, it is likely we’ll see more advanced versions of existing procedures in the near future, as well as increasingly extreme changes for the sake of cosmetics.
