THURSDAY, March 15 (HealthDay News) -- Americans spent almost $12.2 billion to undergo nearly 11.5 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures in 2006, a 1 percent increase over the previous year, according to a survey released by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
Since the society first started collecting multi-specialty procedural statistics in 1997, there has been a 446 percent increase in the number of cosmetic procedures. Women accounted for 92 percent of cosmetic procedures in 2006. They underwent 9 percent fewer surgical procedures and 4 percent more non-surgical procedures compared to 2005.
The most popular non-invasive procedure continues to be Botox (botulinum toxin type A) injections with 3.2 million injections performed last year. Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers, which attained FDA approval in June 2006, were the year's fastest growing non-invasive cosmetic procedures.
"The FDA approval of silicone breast implants in late 2006 seems to have made an impact, as silicone implants are up 18 percent from 2005. For the first time, breast augmentation is the top surgical procedure for women," said James Stuzin, M.D., president of the Aesthetic Society, in a statement. "Furthermore, as the safety and efficacy of the non-surgical procedures on the market continues to improve, the numbers of those procedures performed by board-certified plastic surgeons continues to rise year after year," he added.
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