How Kentucky Fits Into National Cosmetic Trends

Here at Calobrace and Mizuguchi Plastic Surgery Center, flowers and warmer weather aren’t what make springtime special. Each year around this time, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ASAPS, releases its annual report. The document details how many surgical and non-surgical procedures plastic surgeons completed in the previous year, allowing us to compare trends and evaluate which services are on the rise. We feel it’s important for us as plastic surgeons to stay on top of these nationwide numbers to help us make informed choices for our practice in Louisville.

As you can imagine, some procedures, such as breast augmentation, are reliably high performers year after year. But in this year’s report, there were a few surprises.

One such surprise is related to non-surgical body contouring. This year’s report reveals an astounding leap in the popularity of non-surgical fat reduction, such as the CoolSculpting® procedure. More specifically, doctors performed 43% more of these procedures in 2014 than they did the previous year. Here in Louisville, we’ve definitely seen a similar pattern. We’ve observed a noticeable increase in the number of women (and men!) who visit us for this deceptively simple option to eliminate their fat without surgery.

Breast revision is another procedure that saw a big leap in 2014. Up 30% from the previous year, the surgery allows women to exchange their older breast implants for new ones that come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Many of these women were likely swapping out saline implants for today’s silicone “gummy bears.” These implants are exceedingly popular here in Louisville among both first-time patients and those undergoing revisionary surgery. Another emerging option for breast enlargement is fat grafting, which uses the patient’s own fat, harvested from another area of her body, to add natural softness and volume to her breasts.

We’re excited to see how these trends develop over the coming months to learn how we can better serve our patients by responding to nationwide demand.