Blog By Dr. Phillip Chang:  Board Certified Plastic Surgeon with Offices in Loudoun, Winchester, and Fairfax Virginia.

According to the American Society of Aesthetic Surgery ( www.surgery.org , over 10.2 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2008.    The Aesthetic Society has been collecting multi-specialty procedural statistics since 1997.  They state that the overall number of cosmetic procedures has increased 162 percent since the collection of the statistics first began. The most frequently performed nonsurgical procedure was Botox injections and the most popular surgical procedure was breast augmentation. Here in Virginia, in my offices in Loudoun and Fairfax, I have also seen this change, particularly after the introduction of silicone implants.

“For the first time in the twelve years these statistics have been collected liposuction is a runner up in popularity to breast augmentation. There is no doubt that this turnabout will generate discussions in the medical community and the public at large,” said Alan Gold, MD, Aesthetic Society president;  These statistics reflect that “changes in fashion, i.e. décolletage baring styles, might be a factor behind this change.”  Last year, there were 355,671 Breast Augmentation procedures.  Over the same period, 2,464,123 patients were administered Botox.

Although there are many patients who decide to have a breast augmentation when they are younger, the majority of patients decide to undergo a breast augmentation procedure to simply restore and rejuvenate their breasts after having children.  Most of these women would share that pregnancy caused their breasts to lose volume and sag a little or a lot.  Some would say that their nipple-areola complex also got larger.  These women simply want to return to some semblance of what they might have looked like before having children. 

Breast Augmentation

Breast Implant

Loudoun, Winchester, Fairfax, Virginia