A trend, according to Mirriam Webster, is a “tendency, trend, drift, tenor, current mean movement in a particular direction. Trend implies an inclination sometimes amounting to an impelling force. By definition, trends come and go. So it is true in the cosmetic and aesthetics surgery field.
So what are these trends in our field and what is the driving force behind them?
Generally, Cosmetic Surgery Is Trending Up
In 2019, generally speaking the trend is toward cosmetic surgery, as noted by Medical News Today:
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), almost 18 million people underwent surgical and minimally invasive cosmetic procedures in the United States in 2018. This total means that there were almost a quarter of a million more procedures in 2018 than in 2017. Cosmetic surgical procedures have been on the rise in the U.S. over the past 5 years… The difference between plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery [is that]… cosmetic surgery focuses on body enhancement, while plastic surgery reconstructs body parts that have sustained damage due to disease, burns, or trauma.
Thus, cosmetic surgery is made up largely of purely elective procedures (which most of our TSLMS members know).
That same article published by Medical News Today in March 2019, provides details on a study that looked at who is getting these elective procedures and what their motivators are. This is a helpful bit of information for those of us seeking to profile potential clients so that we can advertise and market in the right places.
The findings showed that women who rated their self-esteem, life satisfaction, and attractiveness as low, had few religious beliefs, and had high media exposure were more likely to undergo cosmetic surgery. Although women were generally more attracted to cosmetic surgery, the number of men considering these procedures was significant. The study also highlighted the powerful effects of media exposure and religiousness. People who had more exposure to the media believed that cosmetic surgery brought more benefits, while religious individuals were more likely to perceive cosmetic surgery as something in direct contrast with their beliefs.
The Most Popular Cosmetic Surgery Trends For The Body
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has declared it ‘The Year of the Body.’ This is because 3 of the 5 top procedures are body work and sculpting, rather than facial enhancements. As they note in a report they published recently, there is a “spike in non-invasive fat reduction, as well as surgeries such as breast augmentations and liposuction.”
In fact, there were more than 12,000 more liposuction procedures performed in 2018 than in 2017, while breast augmentations increased by four percent. There were also surges in other body-sculpting procedures like buttock augmentations and thigh lifts. “Liposuction continues to be the gold standard in body contouring because of its versatility, efficiency and effectiveness,” said ASPS President Alan Matarasso, MD. “With liposuction, one treatment may be all you need to reshape problem areas. A plastic surgeon can treat more areas—and larger areas—in one procedure. Liposuction also provides a more consistent and predictable results than non-invasive treatments, but new non-surgical fat reduction machinery continues to evolve and play a role in reshaping areas of the body.”
Trends also point to many people getting both surgical and non-surgical procedures in combination therapies that are designed to work together to enhance their look. We have previously written about these poly therapies in our piece entitled, “The Most Effective Use of Combination Therapies.” For many of our clients or patients, combining surgery, drugs, and/or energy treatments can help them get more for longer out of the work that they have done.
Many of the enhancements that people are seeking in 2019, as noted by Allure Magazine, are what is popularly called ‘tweakments.’
Disproportionate breast enhancements, overfilled lips, and exaggerated cosmetic procedures, are all trends that are on their way out. Now a successful plastic surgery or cosmetic procedure should no longer be obvious. Patients increasingly want to maintain their general face structure, inherited family traits, and just generally want to look like themselves, but with a few refined tweaks.
These tweaks are the same with facial trends as they are for the body. The facial trend, however tends more toward the ‘filtered look,’ and in the case of men, a trend to look for masculine. There is a rise in men seeking cosmetic enhancement.
The Most Popular Cosmetic Surgery Trends For The Face
All of the fashion and beauty magazines have picked up on the tweaking trend as they have reported on these cosmetic surgery trends. Facial tends include, as noted by mega fashion, beauty, and lifestyle influencer, Harpers BAZAAR trend largely toward the non-surgical. However, there are some very significant surgical trends that include
The ‘temporal facelift’, also known as the ‘mini’ or ‘secret facelift’, [what HP predicts] will become one of the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures in 2019. Apparently demand has been increasing in recent years, with many patients opting for it over a full facelift due to the natural and fresher look it offers. Unlike a full facelift, the treatment is carried out under local anaesthetic. This means that patients can return to work the next day and don’t have to suffer from the abundance of unsightly bruising, swelling and bandages as seen with full facelifts, as the scar is hidden on the scalp, within the hair and not on the face.
The simplicity of the job and the brevity of the recovery time is sure to make this trend stick around for a little while. These mini-lifts for faces and necks can help people look a little bit more like their idealized filtered image devoid of the imperfections and signs of age that they carry in lieu of the procedures. In our field, however, we should expect that most of these clients will be best served with combination therapies, including fillers, that can gently help shape them into their ideal.
