Is plastic surgery really losing its appeal?

Why all the long faces?

Perhaps because last year’s economic slump cut deeply into the facelifting biz, as a recent survey indicated.

If the survey is accurate, idle plastic surgeons are trying to keep a stiff upper lip, while former patients who can’t afford more surgery might start looking their own age.

If the survey is accurate, last year’s downturn wasn’t just economic. Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm said the country plunged into a “mental recession,” and maybe we ended up with a facial slump too.  I’m doubtful, though.

Could this could turn into the new reality — women without plastic parts? The world of fantasy suggests that it’s possible.

Disney recently announced that actresses with breast implants need not apply for roles in the next “Pirates of the Caribbean” film, scheduled for release in 2011. Jack Sparrow and other movie pirates will still be allowed to lust after treasure chests overflowing with gold doubloons, but their wenches’ chests won’t overflow with silicone padding.

“In the last movie, there were enhanced breasts to give that 18th-century whorish look, … and no one worried. But times are changing, and the audience can spot false breasts,” said a former casting agent.

TALES OF TROUBLE

Anecdotes like that, combined with the survey from the Garden Grove-based American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ASAPS, were enough for journalists to go on.

“The economic downturn is giving a nip and tuck to people’s interest in plastic surgery,” said NPR’s Scott Hensley, who fleshed out his blog item with an anecdote about discount Botox for job seekers.

“Economy sends plastic surgery down 17%,” the Register’s In Your Face blog reported.

Those survey results rang true for some local cosmetic doctors.

“These figures are probably quite accurate,” said Dr. Christopher Zachary, chairman of the UCI Department of Dermatology. “People are definitely having to consider how best to stretch out their dollars.”

The slowdown has been hardest on plastic surgeons who had a relatively small number of patients even in good times, said plastic surgeon Dr. Joseph Cruise of Newport Beach. Many of them have had to shift from plastic surgery to non-cosmetic reconstructive surgery, he said.

In the British Isles, some journalists declared the ASAPS survey to be evidence of a fundamental shift in Americans’ attitudes toward plastic surgery.

“Slump leads to smaller boob jobs” declared the Sunday Independent in Ireland. “Americans appear to be finally falling out of love with cosmetic surgery after a new report revealed that the number of operations dropped by 18 per cent last year.” It listed plastic-surgery TV shows that have gone off the air — “Extreme Makeover,” “The Swan,” and “Nip/Tuck” (promotional pictured above right).

“Hollywood implants go from must to bust,” said the Daily Mail in England.

WORRISOME WRINKLES

Readers shouldn’t take the ASAPS survey at face value. Look more closely and you’ll find many wrinkles to worry about.

First of all, there isn’t just one survey, but three, and results from a fourth survey are due out later this month from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

The three surveys seem to have been conducted on three different planets, though they’re all focused on cosmetic doctors in the United States.

Comparing 2009 with the previous year, cosmetic procedures overall were down 2 percent, says the ASAPS.

No, they were up 8 percent, says the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.

No, they were up 47 percent, says the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, or AAFPRS.

Nose jobs were down 9 percent, up 74 percent, or down 13 percent, according to the three surveys.

Facelifts were down 29 percent, up 44 percent or up 14 percent.

Each of the three surveys has a deep wrinkle that needs to be dealt with.

Each is based on questions submitted to a particular group of specialists — plastic surgeons, cosmetic surgeons, dermatologists, and ear-nose-and-throat specialists. Yet many cosmetic treatments are done by others.

The surveys don’t cover Botox injections by dentists, laser treatments done by doctors originally trained as obstetricians, or SmartLipo fat-removal operations (pictured) by family physicians.

They don’t account for the many non-surgical cosmetic procedures done at medspas, said plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Niccole of Newport Beach.

A Google search for “SmartLipo” demonstrates the extent of the problem. Among the first 10 local doctors in that listing, only two were plastic surgeons. The others were surgeons (five), an ob/gyn, a family physician, and one doctor without board certification in any specialty.

What’s to be made of all this mess?

Disney says breast implants are out. Heidi Montag says plastic surgery is in, but her critics say she’s out of control.

Surveys show that plastic surgery is down, unless it’s up.

Perhaps plastic surgeon Dr. Val Lambros of Newport Beach has the right idea – instead of fretting about statistics, he jokes that an old wives’ tale might tell us what’s going on.

Fat-fighting plastic surgery is about to get a boost, he predicts, if an old saying about stock prices and hemlines proves true.

“They say that women’s hemlines go up with the stock market,” Lambros said. “If they do, the hips and thighs have to look good too.”

April 2nd, 2010 by Colin Stewart Source:  http://inyourface.freedomblogging.com/2010/04/02/is-plastic-surgery-really-losing-its-appeal/16427/