Despite the recession, there are more cosmetic surgery procedures being carried out in the UK than ever: a 5% increase on the previous year.

But whilst some procedures are clearly on the rise – most notably Breast Enlargements and Male Breast Reductions – others, like Prominent Ear Correction and Abdominoplasty are decreasing in popularity.

What factors might be responsible for these trends and can we predict what factors may influence Cosmetic Surgery trends in 2011?

Women still account for 90% of the 38,274 cosmetic surgery procedures carried out by BAAPS-approved surgeons in 2010 (the same percentage as 2009). The fact that Cosmetic Surgery procedures have risen by 5% despite the recession suggests that we Brits – particularly British women – are simply not willing to compromise our looks or self-esteem no matter how tricky the economy gets. Clearly, saving hard for a much-desired treatment, using savings or trying to find funding is perfectly acceptable today and a good indication of the “worth” of Cosmetic Surgery to modern society.

For these women, easily the most popular Surgery seems to be Breast Augmentation (enlargement with implants). After two years of very little increase, there has suddenly been a considerable (10%) rise in Breast Augmentation procedures. There were 9430 Breast Enlargements in the UK by BAAPS surgeons last year. Blepheroplasty (eyelids) and Face/Neck Lifts also all seem to be increasing in popularity.

It is not only women finding the funds for cosmetic surgery, however. Amongst the 10% of male patients in the UK, there was a huge increase in popularity of Male Breast (Man Boob / Moob) Reduction (up 28%). Possibly this surge is due to better publicity about Gynaecomastia and availability of this treatment. Taking away some of the “taboo” about this condition may have made men feel it is more acceptable to come forward for this confidence-enhancing treatment. The ever-popular male nose-job (rhinoplasty) is also steadily rising in numbers.

Abdominoplasty procedures, however, seem to have fallen slightly in popularity last year with both genders. So has Liposuction for women, but not for men. This could possibly be explained by the growing protocol for Cosmetic Surgeons to advise patients to reach an optimum Body Mass Index before embarking upon cosmetic surgery. This may well have dissuaded those who intended to use such procedures as a “quick fix” for losing weight, instead of exercise and sensible dieting. Perhaps men are more willing than women to embark upon the prescribed exercise regime and return for treatment.

For men and women alike, 2010 saw a considerable decrease (23%) in Otoplasty surgery, to correct prominent ears. As this source recognises, people with protruding ears often feel they are the first thing people notice, yet “ears are generally a less important part of our appearance since they are placed and shaped in a way that our surroundings do not notice them.” Perhaps this explains why this procedure is one which has been compromised at a time when money is tight and sacrifices must be made. Added to this is the growing “fashionability” of larger ears as a cute quirk thanks to a number of high-profile figures: Will Smith (and his daughter, Willow); Channing Tatum; Barrack Obama; Kate Hudson; Gary Lineker; Lee Evans.

For 2011, there are a few social trends emerging already which could fuel Cosmetic Surgery predictions. Weight Loss and Body Mass are hot topics which could lead people to become increasingly self-conscious about their physiques and cause a return to Abdominoplasty / Liposuction procedures, particularly if coupled with health regimes. Chairman of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors, Dr Mike Comins, predicts that as costs of living worsen, people will turn increasingly to smaller, cheaper procedures like Botox and Fillers or cheaper, “mini” versions of treatments like a Mini Tummytuck or Vaser-Lipo.

Patients video testimonial to Earlobe repair following earlobe stretching for Aurora-Clinics.

julian123411

1 month ago

This is me, I can not thank the team enough for this, they have done a amazing job, if you need this done do not go anywhere else 5 stars

 As you can see, the ear is of normal height but the antihelical fold hasn’t formed very well.  Here I’m just demonstrating the antihelical fold, you can see that’s the fold that should be created in the ear and when it doesn’t form, the ear becomes prominent.  I’m just marking the antihelical fold here with the patient asleep and the posterior line there is where I’m going to insert my stitches.  I’m just also marking the skin on the back of the ear.  The whole operation’s done with an incision on the back of the ear with absolutely no incisions on the front of the ear.  Next stage is to insert local anaesthetic in the skin of the ear, some people choose to have this operation done purely under local anaesthetic, some people, as in this case, choose to have general anaesthetic to cover it.  But it’s important anyway to have local anaesthetic for post operative pain relief.  Here I am just removing the slither of skin with electro diathermy which controls the bleeding.  I only remove a very small slither of skin because it’s not the skin that controls the shape of the ear, it’s the underlying cartilage that we need to control.  So here I am just completing the skin excision with my electrocautery, just to the end there.

The next stage is to create a fascial flap and this is a flap I use to cover up the stitches.  So here you can see I’m just removing a layer of tissue from the back of the cartilage and here’s my flap that I’ve created and I’m going to use this to cover the stitches.  This is a very important stage, I place a needle through the cartilage on both sides, in four areas and this shows me exactly where I want to place my stitches.  Here I am placing a stitch, I use four non absorbable stitches in the back of the ear, here’s the middle one going in and that just controls the ear and holds it back in place nicely.  Here are the four stitches that are placed and you can see that’s controlled the antihelix quite well and those are the positions of the stitches.  The next stage is to sew the skin up, here I am doing that with an absorbable vicryl stitch which doesn’t need to be removed.  So you can see the ear is nicely controlled her and nice and stable and the skin on the back is sewn up neatly with that stitch that won’t need to be removed.

The next stage is to just secure the ear with a tissue glue so I place that between the skin and the ear and the reason for this is to just hold the ear in place during the healing period.  So I tend to put a bandage on, we put a bandage on nowadays for much less time than previously and typically I’ll leave this on for three to four days.  So here we are before the operation, you can see poorly developed antihelical fold with a prominent ear on this side, very similar on the other left side as well.  This is it straight after the operation, this is five days following the operation and when I’ve removed the dressing.  You can see with this posterior only technique, very little bruising normally occurs and a very good result with minimum down time.

So thank you very much for watching this video, I hope you’ve found it useful, if you’d like to contact us to talk about any procedure, please do so by contacting us via the Aurora Clinic’s website or by phoning us.  Thank you very much for listening and we look forward to seeing you soon.