Recession causes a droop in plastic surgery biz: report
The casualties of this latest recession come in different shapes and sizes.
And new victims always seem to come to light as we look back on the downturn. We know about the laid-off, the suddenly pension-less retirees and the graduates who can’t find work, but here are four new sufferers of the economy we never thought to consider.
Boobs, butts, tummies and chins.
Indeed, the saggy and misshapen among us appear to have just been sucking it up over the past year or two, according to new numbers from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
As reported in the New York Times, the plastic surgery business was one of many industries crippled by the recession, seeing a 20 per cent drop in annual spending in some regions.
The U.S., as you might imagine, was one of the biggest-hit areas, where a 20 per cent decline cost the nation’s cosmetic surgery biz some $2.7 billion last year compared with the country’s spending in 2007.
Which procedures were hardest hit? The top five ones, of course – the operations that, while the most expensive, also happen to be the most popular:
-- Breast augmentations drooped 22 per cent from 2007
-- Liposuction fell almost 40 per cent in that same period
-- Eyelid surgeries were down 38 per cent
-- Tummy tucks (abdominoplasty) shrunk about 30 per cent
-- Face lifts sagged by another 30 per cent or so, as well
Yet, despite the decline, the recession’s tightwad-inducing effects didn’t prompt all of society to simply leave their bodies be. In fact, a move toward spending less meant people did just that ... on the cosmetic procedures they insisted on getting anyway.
A decrease in big-ticket plastic surgeries appeared to mean an increase on cheaper, nonsurgical treatments like Botox and wrinkle fillers, which each received a 4 per cent boost in 2009 compared to a year earlier.
While we condone penny-pinching here as much as the next, you might want to reconsider skimping on costs if you actually plan on going under the knife.
After all, ladies, you don’t want to end up with four boobs.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Alta girl | Mar 10, 2022 3:57:09 PM
And now that the 2010 Canada budget has declared cosmetic procedures can no longer be claimed as a medical expense on one's taxes , perhaps we will finally see the prices particularly on non-invasive procedures like Botox and the like come down as cosmetic surgeons and dermatologists will need to become more ompetitive to recapture the anti-aging( and the don't hate me because I am beautiful but if you only knew cause I wasn't born this way ) market- consumers just might end up on the receiving side of the recession and the limp 2010 Can. budget in this particular instance
Posted by: Don | Mar 10, 2022 6:23:25 PM
I dont think the cost will drop. For the people who want it it wont make that much difference and it is not going to cost the clinic any less to do the proceedure
Posted by: Steve | Mar 11, 2022 6:35:41 AM
It looks like everyone (Doctors included) had better start getting used to the idea that all medical staff have been massively overpaid the past 50+ years. But wait, don't take my word for it. Look at the Provincial Budget or even the US GDP figure breakdown.
Does the average American spend 17.3 percent of their day in their Dr's offices? That was last years portion of GDP devoted to health care spending, in Canada it was 'only' 9.8 percent.
Anyone who has waited and waited and waited in an Ontario hospital with a sick child can imagine what will happen when the obese baby boom cohort reaches retirement age or older.