An NBC News article that was recently released states that nearly twice as many men are choosing to have cosmetic surgery as did fifteen years ago. This may be due largely to cultural shifts in the acceptability of cosmetic procedures in the male culture.

“I think now it’s becoming more acceptable and men are looking more into plastic surgery and I think this trend is gonna go from 10 to 15 to 20 percent. I think it’s gonna go up,” says El Paso, TX surgeon Dr. Ozan Sozer. Some of the most common cosmetic surgeries performed on men are liposuction, chin surgery, nose jobs and breast reductions.

Men Having More Chin Surgeries, Breast Reductions

Men may tend to be a little more cautious. According to Dr. Sozer, “Everybody has doubts, especially if you’re having surgery for a reason that is not absolutely necessary. To make them feel more comfortable, I usually see female patients with a female nurse with me. With the males, I see them by myself so it’s just a male to male conversation so I think they feel more comfortable with that.”

In many cases, men choose to undergo additional procedures after a consultation on a simpler matter. Henry Parisi’s initial consult was for a growth on his jaw. “I got to talking to Dr. Sozer about doing some extra things for me. He showed me some photos of his male patients before and after and what I could see all of them kinda looked refreshed. They didn’t look plastic or overdone. I got a little bit excited. I thought, ‘What the heck. I’m going under the knife…go the whole nine yards.’”

While Parisi eventually opted for a facelift, some of the most common surgeries for men are liposuction and chin surgery, often with an augmentation for more prominent features. Male breast reduction is also very popular.

Breast augmentation procedures continue to defy European austerity measures by dramatically increasing in popularity, according to a recent article in The Financial Times. The article also discussed dramatic increases in Botox sales, both Allergan products.

Even though many European countries are experiencing record unemployment numbers and are being forced to cut back in a number of areas, breast implant growth is skyrocketing. The chief executive of Allergan, David Pyott, stated that his company had double-digit growth in its breast implant sales in the first three months of 2012.

Numerous Factors Lead to European Breast Implant Sales Increases

According to Mr. Pyott, “In southern Europe, people spend a higher proportion of their income on appearance and lifestyle. They are happy to live in a modest apartment and look good facially and body-wise when they go out.”

In addition to personal reasons, the recent scandals involving PIP breast implants have turned more patients to Allergan products. These scandals seem not to have diminished breast implant sales.

Botox, another product sold by Allergan, is also continuing to increase in European popularity. Though steadily gaining in cosmetic and medical use, sales of Botox for non-cosmetic use have now become more common in Europe than the traditional cosmetic uses. These non-cosmetic uses include migraine headache relief, joint pain relief, and additional muscular and pain-related conditions.

All together, the European increases have dramatically helped the success of Allergan, a United States pharmaceutical company. In the last year, the company’s net earnings have increased by 45 percent. Despite difficult economic times, cosmetic procedures and sales of cosmetic products continue to enjoy dramatic growth.

Both Botox and breast augmentation continue to be wildly successful procedures in American markets as well. Botox is the most popular non-surgical procedure in the US, and breast augmentation is traditionally one of the top surgical procedures.

According to an April Reuters article, the massive increases in cosmetic surgery procedures has contributed to a need for additional conversational guidelines for those working together in the modern workplace.

According to The Wall Street Journal, more people are undergoing cosmetic surgery than ever before, prompting a number of developments to the industry as well as requisite shifts in conversational etiquette.

Increasing Cosmetic Procedures May Require Guidelines for Comfortable Discussions

Cosmetic surgery procedures have been growing across the board, including breast augmentation, body lifts and especially facial procedures such as chin augmentations, liposuction and facial fillers.

The Reuters article quotes Dr. Mary Lee Peters, a Seattle-based cosmetic surgeon, who said that having these procedures “takes on a polarizing effect like religion or politics. People have very strong opinions about it. There is no getting around it and no denying it. It is foolish to pretend that comfort in one’s body doesn’t matter. The people most likely to deny it are mostly uncomfortable with their own appearance.”

The guidelines discussed in the article include some commonsense advice, such as “don’t ask,” “don’t judge,” and “don’t gossip.” General wisdom advises those who suspect someone has undergone cosmetic surgery to let the potential patient bring it up in their own time.

Once the subject has been broached, it is best to focus on the health side of the discussion, asking the patient how they are feeling, how their recovery has been, and how they personally feel about the results of the procedure. Asking these supportive questions is one of the best ways to be an empathetic and interested listener. If the patient remarks on a dissatisfaction with the procedure, it is best to say something along the lines of, “I see what you mean, but only when you point it out.”

In Dr. Peters’ opinion, “It’s like choosing butter over olive oil, or vice versa. If you want to do it, and you are able to, why would that be any different from using resources to go to Europe or anywhere else?”

According to a recent Medscape Education article, the FDA has approved the third type of silicone breast implants in its history, a model manufactured by Sientra.

The two previously approved silicone breast implants were given approval by the FDA in November, 2006. They are the Natrelle, manufactured by Allergan and MemoryGel, manufactured by Mentor.

Third Type of Silicon Breast Implants Manufactured by Sientra

Almost 300,000 women received breast augmentation in the United States in 2010, a number which has consistently climbed each year. It is estimated that there are 5-10 million women with breast implants worldwide.

Prior to granting approval, the FDA typically insists on rigorous clinical testing. In this case, three years of clinical trials were undertaken with a testing group of 1788 women. It was determined that the potential side effects of these new implants were no more frequent or serious than the other, currently accepted silicone or saline implants.

The final findings of the FDA report stated that: “based on the totality of the evidence, the FDA believes that silicone gel–filled breast implants have a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness when used as labeled.”

The approval of the Sientra silicone implants required a number of post-approval conditions, including:

• Seven years of follow-up studies on the 1788 female participants of the previous clinical trials
• Undertaking of five studies that evaluate any links between the new implants and lymphoma, cervical/vulvar cancer, brain cancer, neurological disease and connective tissue disease
• Monitoring of almost 5000 recipients of the implants for the next ten years, to see if they develop long-term complications

The FDA report also cautioned that it is important for women who undergo breast augmentation to be aware that they may require revision of their implants with time, and that the implants should only be used in women older than 22 years of age.

(The Medscape article linked to in the first paragraph may require a Medscape account to view.)

A recent article in Cosmetic Surgery News reports that Timmie Jean Lindsay, the first patient to receive silicone breast implants in 1962, is still healthy and more than happy with her breast implants and their legacy.

Over those 50 years, the breast implantation procedure has gone from just one patient to over 1,600,000 procedures annually in the United States alone. It is the second most popular cosmetic procedure in the world, coming in just slightly behind liposuction. And it’s still growing.

First Woman to Receive Silicone Breast Implants in 1962 Still Proud and Healthy

Timmie Jean Lindsay is still “quite proud” of her silicone implants as an 80 year old woman, and says that she has “never once regretted” being the first woman to have silicone breast implants.

When Lindsay had her breast augmentation in 1962, the procedure was in its infancy. Other proposed (and failed) methods of breast augmentation had included paraffin injections, glass balls, ground rubber, ivory, ox cartilage, gutta-percha, and various polyethylene products. Flap techniques had been tried and silicone had been injected into the breast tissue but not placed within a protective sac.

In 1961, Dr. Thomas Cronin and Dr. Frank Gerow developed a thick silicone gel encapsulated in a teardrop-shaped rubber sac. Following successful testing, they asked Timmie Jean Lindsay if she would be willing to be the first recipient of these historical implants.

Lindsay had first come into their offices to have a tattoo removed near her chest, and it was the doctors who approached her with the idea. Hesitant at first, she said that she’d rather have her ears adjusted. Dr. Cronin and Dr. Gerow told her that they would perform both the ear surgery and the breast implantation for free, and she agreed.

Their courage and the success of that first procedure helped shape the future of breast surgeries, including breast augmentation, breast reconstruction, breast reductions and breast lifts. The long-term success of that procedure and its ever-increasing popularity have had a dramatic affect on world since 1962.

As reported in a recent Huffington Post article, lower-income Brazilians have been receiving a wide range of cosmetic procedures, including rhinoplasty, liposuction, Botox, facelifts, and many others.

The surprising feature of this news is that these Brazilians are receiving their cosmetic surgical procedures at deeply discounted rates or completely free of charge. These procedures are being performed as a result of an effort in the cosmetic surgery community to provide a boost in morale and self esteem for the poorest of the poor in Brazil.

Thousands of Low-Income Brazilians Receive Rhinoplasties, Other Cosmetic Surgical Procedures

Since 1997, over 14,000 free rhinoplasties, liposuctions, dermal filler injections and other cosmetic procedures have been performed at just one of the 220 clinics that offer free and discounted procedures to Brazilian patients who are unable to pay for them. If other clinics not documented in the article offered even half that number, it would mean that over one million free cosmetic procedures have been performed since 1997.

According to Dr. Nelson Rosas, one of the doctors who performs free procedures such as Botox, this has a dramatic effect on the patients. In his words, “what’s a wrinkle? Something minor, right? But when we treat the wrinkle…we’re actually treating something very important: The patient’s self esteem.”

Brazil is the second largest consumer of cosmetic surgery in the world, giving them an adequate customer base to help support this high level of non-profit cosmetic surgery, which includes rhinoplasties, liposuction, breast augmentation and breast lifts.

The benefits of these free procedures are having a profound effect on the psyche of the Brazilian poor, providing hope and beauty in difficult times. In the words of Dr. Ivo Pitanguy, another Brazilian cosmetic surgeon performing free procedures, “The poor have the right to be beautiful, too.”

New developments in the fat grafting procedure have given it new, longer-lasting results, according to a clinical study discussed in a recent Cosmetic Surgery Times article.

The crucial development in this procedure shows that the addition of a matrix known as Selphyl to the fat transfer helps grow more blood vessels in the injection area. The additional growth of these blood vessels makes the fat transfer process more effective by allowing the fat to survive longer. This leads to longer-lasting results with a decreased need for revisionary procedures.

Selphyl Matrix Gives Longer-Lasting Fat Grafting Results

The fat grafting procedure has proven to be highly effective due to its use of natural body fat as a facial filler. By the utilization of a natural body substance, the chance of rejection is eliminated and the likelihood of infection is greatly reduced over other facial injectables.

The fat grafting process involves the removal of fat from trouble areas using liposuction. This removed fat is then purified and processed to create a filler that is easily accepted by the body. This filler is then injected into the target facial areas at specific depths and locations to fill out sunken areas of the face.

One of the few drawbacks of this procedure is the variability of the injected fat cell survival. Typically 30-50% of the fat injected is absorbed by the body, necessitating overfill in order to compensate for the expected loss. The introduction of Selphyl into the fat grafting procedure helps decrease the absorption and make the procedure more consistent. This makes fat grafting easier to plan for without unnecessary overfilling.

The Selphyl matrix is injected as a 1:2 mixture with the harvested fat cells. Selphyl is made up of a biocompatible platelet-rich fibrin matrix that has been shown to increase neovascularization and total cell number. Fat grafting may be used in conjunction with a variety of procedures, including facelifts and hand rejuvenation surgery.

The study was reported in the American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery.

As reported by a recent article in the popular cosmetic medicine magazine New You, there are a number of innovations in the breast augmentation field that may contribute to greatly diminished incision lines or incisions in less visual areas such as the belly button. A variety of the latest developments and trends are discussed that may leave patients with minimal scarring, fewer complications and the shortest recovery period possible.

As the first national magazine devoted completely to anti-aging medicine and aesthetic procedures, New You is a quarterly publication dedicated to providing the best possible information on the safety, effectiveness and various costs of aesthetic medicine.

New Procedures Give More Discreet Breast Augmentation Incisions

With more than 300,000 American women electing to have breast augmentations last year, the surgery remains one of the country’s most popular cosmetic procedures. Yet the wide range of possibilities such as choosing between saline implants or silicone implants can make it a difficult decision to navigate.

Though traditional incisions at the nipple and the breast crease are becoming smaller and smaller as technology progresses, many new procedures allow for the same outcome as but place the incision far from the breast area. This alternative has been quite appealing for some patients.

The arm pit incision, or transaxillary method, utilizes a three to five centimeter incision concealed within the natural lines of the armpit. One benefit of this procedure is the ability to use a camera to visualize the chest muscle.

Another popular new incision location is within the belly button. Also known as the trans-umbilical or TUBA breast augmentation, this procedure requires the creation of a tunnel between the belly button and the breasts for the delivery of a rolled-up saline implant.

Other developments include incisions placed in the areola of the nipple and the addition of a breast augmentation to a mommy makeover procedure. In the mommy makeover procedure, the implants are inserted through the pubic bone incision used for the tummy tuck.

Some doctors are supporting these new techniques as a way to minimize complications as well as recovery time and scarring. According to breast augmentation expert Dr. Cuzalina, “some doctors believe there’s a lower rate of infection when the incision is away from the breast.”

Women who undergo breast surgery report a major improvement in their overall sexual experience, according to a new RealSelf.com survey. The women who participated in the survey stated that sex was more frequent and that their overall sexual experience was improved following their surgeries.

These women are part of a large American demographic, one that is increasing every year. In the last three years alone, almost one million women have had breast enhancement procedures, whether they be breast lifts or breast augmentations.

Satisfaction Statistics of Women Following Cosmetic Surgery

This survey recorded a number of new statistics that cast a fascinating light on the relationship between breast surgery and a patient’s sex life. Some of these statistics include:

• 70% of the women who answered the survey reported that satisfaction with their sex life increased overall after their breast surgery.
• 28% of surveyed women said that their sex life improved by four points or more on a ten point scale following their procedure
• 61% of women reported increased frequency of their sexual encounters, while only 7% reported a decrease following the procedure
• The overall pre-procedure sexual satisfaction was a 6.07 out of 10, while the post-procedure sexual satisfaction rating was an 8.13, an average increase of 34%.

According to Dr. Andrew P. Trussler, who specializes in breast cosmetic procedures, “in my personal observation, women definitely feel more confident after the procedure, and you can easily see how that improved confidence will lead to improvements in other areas of their lives.”

Historically, breast enhancement procedures have a very high level of patient satisfaction. RealSelf.com, which is the largest online community devoted to cosmetic procedure information, also asked patients to determine if their cosmetic procedures were “worth it” overall. Their data shows that 7.5 out of 10 breast augmentation patients and 8 out of 10 breast lift patients feel their procedures were worthwhile.

African-American men and women are having more cosmetic surgery, going against a historical trend of avoiding cosmetic procedures. In an ABC News 20/20 cosmetic surgery special report, this dramatic change was thoroughly documented. Over 70% of cosmetic procedures are currently performed on white patients, though these numbers have been changing over the last few years.

One of the potential reasons for this ratio is the healthiness of African-American skin. As a result of natural protectants, African-American skin ages with fewer cracks, wrinkling and marks. This may have contributed to the decreased market for African-American cosmetic surgery. Despite this genetic advantage, Botox and body contouring procedures are now increasing.

Popular African-American Cosmetic Surgery Options

One of the more popular cosmetic surgery options for African-American patients is the butt lift. This procedure involves the removal of fat deposits from trouble areas like the stomach and the re-injection into the tissue of the buttocks. The butt lift gives a firmer, more youthful looking appearance to the area.

Other popular options include various forms of breast reshaping, including breast augmentation and breast reduction or repositioning. Rhinoplasty, or the cosmetic reshaping of the nose, is also a commonly requested procedure.

Botox, or botulinum toxin injections, have been an extremely common procedure. The 20/20 special report paid a visit to a dinner party in Beverly Hills, CA, in which Botox injections were given to African-American party guests. These guests reported that they were lining up for the procedure despite cultural pressure that said they shouldn’t.

One guest, Linda Caradine-Poinsett, stated that she believed African-American women are still “in the closet” about these procedures due to “cultural stigmas.” She then added, “I’m amazed at how comfortable I’m starting to feel about having cosmetic surgery.” With the numbers of African-American cosmetic surgeries increasing, that mindset seems to be spreading.