Reports recently published by British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) would seem to suggest a drop in cosmetic procedures by 40%. Having seen a steady growth in surgery over the last 10 years, last year saw a decline below 31,000. Slightly more of a decline in men than women.
Reasons for this are likely to be financial uncertainty around the consequences of Brexit and our own political instability in the UK. People are opting for less expensive non-surgical options, where they exist, over an often more reliable surgical option, but which necessarily carries a greater fee and risk of complication.
Thus non-surgical treatments continue to rise steadily as do surgical procedures where there is not a good non-surgical replacement such as abdominoplasty, pinnaplasty and rhinoplasty.
I hope it also means that people are being more discerning in their decisions around cosmetic options and more importantly who they choose to perform their surgery.
David R Gateley Director DRG Plastic Surgery Ltd