Plastic Surgery: The Ever Booming Industry

Plastic Surgery 

Plastic surgery is a booming surgical specialty with incredible subspecialties, such as burn surgery, hand surgery, microsurgery, craniofacial surgery, aesthetic surgery, wound care, and many more. 

Also known as reconstructive surgery, plastic surgery aims to reconstruct or repair damaged or missing tissue and skin. The surgery mainly helps to restore the function of the tissues.

Cosmetic surgery is a sub-type of plastic surgery. It aims to improve a person's appearance but should be approached with great caution. With technological innovations, the scope of cosmetic surgery is ever-expanding to cover almost every part of the body.

Different types of Reconstructive Surgeries

Reconstructive surgeries are usually performed in cases of injuries, disfigurement issues, or birth defects. For every defect, there is a procedure that improves imperfect lives.

These include:

• Feet and Hand Surgeries: People affected by maladies, cancerous and non-cancerous tumors, webbed or extra toes or fingers, and also carpal tunnel syndrome need these surgeries.

• Wound Care or Skin Grafts: This procedure is available for people severely cut or burned.

• Flap Procedures or Microsurgery: This technique replaces parts of the body affected by any disease or injury.

• Breast Reconstruction: The women who have undergone mastectomy or women with abnormally larger breasts that are causing back issues or any health-related problems can consider undergoing breast reconstruction. Even men undergo breast reduction.

• Facial Surgeries: Facial defects like cleft lip, breathing issues such as chronic infections, sinuses or snoring can be treated by facial surgeries.

Different types of Cosmetic Surgery Procedures

A variety of aesthetic/cosmetic procedures are available for different parts of the body:

Breast Plastic Surgery

• Breast Augmentation (Breast Implant Surgery/Breast Enhancement): The procedure is usually performed by inserting silicone implants or adding the patient’s own body fat which increases the size of the breast.

• Breast Reduction: The procedure removes extra fat from the breasts to reduce and reshape the heavy breasts.

• Breast Lift (Mastopexy): The procedure raises or uplifts the sagging breasts to give them a more perky and youthful appearance.

• Male Breast Reduction (Gynecomastia): This is a man boob correction surgery that removes extra fat/tissue/skin from the chest to give a better masculine appearance.

Body Contouring Surgery

• Liposuction: The procedure removes extra fat from any desired part of the body that does not respond to exercise and diet. The areas for liposuction typically are the abdomen, arms, chin, buttocks, hips thighs, etc. It is a minimally invasive procedure.

• Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty): The procedure removes extra fat or skin from the abdomen to get a flat tummy. Women usually consider this procedure post-pregnancy and childbirth.

• Buttock Augmentation or Buttock Lift: The procedure usually consists of fat transfer from other areas like the flank and abdomen, which is known as Brazilian Butt Lift. This can also be performed by inserting a silicone implant to enhance your rear.

• Calf Implants (Calf Augmentation): The procedure consists of silicone implant insertion to the calf muscles in people with thin lower legs.

• Arm Lift (Brachioplasty): The procedure consists of extra fat and skin removal from the arms of women with loose skin in the arms. The surgery enhances the shape of the arms.

• Mommy Makeover: It is a surgical package of different types of plastic surgery procedures for mothers to get back in shape after childbirth and breastfeeding.

Facial Surgery

• Face Lift (Rhytidectomy): The procedure reverses the aging signs on the face. Facelift, when combined with blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty, and brow lift gives a fresh look.

• Rhinoplasty (Nose Job or Nose Reshaping): The procedure reshapes the nose according to the individual’s needs. It can also correct bumps, indentations, and any other defects of the nose.

• Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Surgery): The procedure improves the appearance of saggy, tired, and droopy eyelids. This surgery also corrects eye bags, popularly known as Asian Eyelids.

• Brow Lift: The procedure corrects droopy eyebrows and also removes the lines on the forehead. The forehead area gets a fresh and youthful appearance.

• Chin Implant Surgery (Chin Augmentation): The plastic surgery procedure corrects a receding or weak chin to make it appear in proportion with other facial features.

• Cheek Implant Surgery (Cheek Augmentation): The procedure adds definition to the face by adding volume. To add volume, silicone implants or one’s own body fat are inserted to get a more balanced look.

• Ear Reshaping (Otoplasty or Bat Ear Reshaping): The procedure reduces the size of protruding ears and pins them back. This is often advised during childhood because the cartilage is easy to mold.

• Hair Transplant: The procedure transplants hair follicles in the bald areas of the scalp or even beard and mustache in men.

Vaginal Surgery

• Hymenoplasty (Hymen Repair or Virginity Restoration Surgery): This procedure is preferred by girls before marriage to restore their virginity for maybe cultural or social reasons.

• Vaginal Tightening or Vaginoplasty: It is the procedure that tightens the lax and loose vaginal muscles in women after childbirth. This also enhances sexual pleasure.

• Labia Reduction: It is the plastic surgery procedure to reduce the size or even reshape the labia to make the area look proportionate and attractive.

Less Invasive Treatments

These include peels, botox, fillers, grafts, and laser treatment.

• Peels: Chemical peels help in treating acne, scars, pockmarks, or even wrinkles. This treatment involves the usage of a number of active agents such as Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs), TCA (trichloroacetic acid), etc.

• Botulinum Toxin or Botox: This toxin aims to improve appearance. It has been approved for the treatment of frown lines on the forehead, crow's feet, or even lines around the eye, axillary hyperhidrosis, and increased sweating of the armpits.

• Fillers: Soft tissue fillers or dermal fillers are FDA-approved medical device implants aiming to create a fuller and smoother appearance in the face. These are used to treat nasolabial folds, lips, and cheeks. They are also used to reduce wrinkles, scars, and lines, and augment soft tissue contours.

• Fat Injections and Fat Grafting: The patient’s own fat is collected from one part of the body using liposuction, which is then injected in the target areas requiring volume enhancement. 

Safety

Although plastic surgery has been proven to be exceedingly safe, no surgical procedure comes without any risk. It is very important that you choose a qualified plastic surgeon and review his past surgical success. Also, to ensure safety and the best post-surgical outcome, the patient must be transparent about their complete medical history to their surgeon prior to the surgery. The patient must discuss every aspect of the treatment undertaken including the complications involved.

According to Rod J. Rohrich, MD, and colleagues from the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute, "Plastic surgery is very safe when performed in an accredited outpatient facility for a majority of patients. The overall risk is very low for performing plastic surgery in the outpatient setting."

Complications:

Every surgery has complications.

 Following are the symptoms during or shortly after surgery:

• unusual pain
• visual disturbances
• white skin near an injection site
• signs of stroke

Other potential complications include:

• Numbness: In rare cases, this temporary complication can even result in a permanent loss of sensation.
• Asymmetry: This can be mild, but severe irregularities may require a corrective procedure.
• Seroma: This refers to the pooling of fluid under the skin after an abdominal or breast surgery.

Plastic Surgery Statistics

The plastic surgery market almost reached $11.6 billion in 2018 and is likely to double by 2021.

According to the last results of the Global Aesthetic Survey released by The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) in 2017, there is a 5% increase in the cosmetic surgeries worldwide performed within the past twelve months.

The most popular cosmetic surgical procedures are as follows, according to ASPS:

• Breast Augmentation
• Liposuction 
• Eyelid Surgery 

The most popular non-surgical procedure is Botulinum Toxin with a total number of 5,033,693 procedures performed worldwide.

The fastest-growing cosmetic procedures are:

• Vaginal Rejuvenation (including Labiaplasty)
• Lower Body Lift
• Buttock Lift
• Rhinoplasty

Women have continued to top the demand for plastic surgery procedures which accounts for 85.4% or 20,207,190 procedures worldwide. The most popular procedures requested by women are Breast Augmentation (Silicone Implant), Breast Lift, Liposuction, Eyelid Surgery, and Abdominoplasty.

On the contrary, men accounted for 14.4% of plastic surgeries which is 3,183,351 procedures performed worldwide. The cosmetic procedures usually requested by men are Gynecomastia, Eyelid Surgery, Rhinoplasty, Hair Transplant, and Liposuction.

Also, according to the IMCAS beauty industry conference in Paris, Asia is the fastest-growing market, led by China and India.

Plastic Surgery Medical Tourism Packages

With the skyrocketing costs of the treatment, many people are eventually considering going under foreign knives for their plastic surgeries.

According to a report from the Medical Tourism Association (MTA), the top five destinations in Asia for plastic surgery are India, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. The top seven destinations in America are Costa Rica, Brazil, Panama, Colombia, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Argentina.

The cost of plastic/cosmetic surgery worldwide varies with the procedure, the facility, and the surgeon you choose. However, when compared with the United States, the potential cost savings are:

• India: 65-90%
• Malaysia: 65-80%
• Turkey: 50-65%
• Thailand: 50-75%
• Costa Rica: 45-65%
• Mexico: 40-65%
• Taiwan: 40-55%
• South Korea: 30-45%
• Singapore: 25-40%
• Brazil: 20-30%

The Upcoming Advances of the Industry

Currently, advances in plastic surgical technology and research are directly proportional to consumer demand. The cherry on the cake -- the Food and Drug Administration is set to approve three new and cutting-edge cosmetic procedures in 2019.

• Injectables will be more accessible than ever: According to Lara Devgan, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York says, "It's really the era of minimally invasive medical aesthetic procedures." Injectables are quick, lunchtime procedures with immediately visible effects as well as limited downtime.

• Cosmetic procedures will be more inclusive: A radio frequency technology like FaceTite which addresses the neck and jawline sagging is anticipated to skyrocket in 2019. Moreover, this procedure can be performed in conjunction with procedures like liposuction.

• Welcoming the Tweak-Ment world: There is a rise in the ‘tweak-ment’ trend.  People nowadays want to look more like their own Photoshop version.  Owing to this, micro-optimizations are attracting many people which include the unorthodox use of fillers. Another procedure becoming popular is Cupid’s bow which addresses the space between your nose and the lip.

• Big preventative treatments: Coming years would be the time of tweak-ment and small corrections to the body and face while being true to the natural characteristics. Experts predict that many people will be considering these surgeries at a younger age for preventive treatments.

A Matter of Choice

Today’s reasoning and motives behind plastic surgical operations have hit a moral low. But, every patient has the right to be the judge of their own lives and priorities. To sum up, plastic surgery is just a matter of choice!

Even if plastic surgery or cosmetic surgery comes with a few risks, many different health conditions and cosmetic corrections are successfully treated by trusted plastic surgeons worldwide. The main goal of every plastic surgery unit in the world is to ensure that each and every patient integrate better within the society which eventually improves the quality of life, rather than just physical functions.

About IndiCure

IndiCure is one of the most renowned names when it comes to getting plastic surgery in India.  One of the most renowned medical tourism companies in the world, IndiCure has been delighting medical tourists for over a decade now!

For more information on quality and affordable plastic surgery packages in India, wr    ite to us at info@indicure.com or call us at +91-932-003-6777