The concept of looking young forever has become an obsession of a growing number of people. The number of performed procedures has increased three fold in some cases since 1997. In that year, about 100,000 people had breast augmentations.
The concept of looking young forever has become an obsession of a growing number of people. The number of performed procedures has increased three fold in some cases since 1997. In that year, about 100,000 people had breast augmentations. In 2008, more than 350,000 people had the same procedure done. Tummy tucks jumped from 34,000 in 1997 to nearly 150,000 in 2008. Many more people are not having the procedures done, but are fascinated to know which celebrities are. Television shows cater to people’s obsession with seeing aesthetic changes via cosmetic surgery. Why is there so much attention given to this category of medical work today?
Based on statistics given by the American Academy of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, approximately 12.1 million surgical and non-surgical cosmetic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2008. This is an increase of 3% from the previous year, a 63% increase from 2000, and more than 300% since 1997. About 17% of procedures performed are surgical in nature. Obviously, many people choose to enhance their appearance with less invasive and less expensive non-surgical procedures whenever possible. Still, over 2 million cosmetic surgeries in the US in a single year indicate that it is high on many people’s priority lists.
The growing number of cosmetic surgery operations being performed is perhaps due to the fact that the baby boomer generation is health conscious and they want to look as good as they feel. Diet and exercise, along with a good dose of cosmetic surgery, is the mantra of the day. As procedures are perfected, anesthesia improved, and less invasive procedures invented, many people are taking advantage of the opportunity to look and feel younger by having one or more procedures performed on a number of different body parts.
As society comes to accept cosmetic surgery more and more, the pressure to look good in order to have an impact on society continues to increase as well. Looking good is coming to mean having enough money to get work done. It is true, according to psychological studies, that people with good looks are perceived as being smarter, more popular and therefore have a greater chance at being successful. The subconscious impact this has on people can actually make them believe they cannot succeed without good looks. In a competitive society, every edge a potential employee can get over their competition is one they will take, and good looks is certainly one of them.
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