Breast augmentation is popular, very popular. But just how many are done in this country each year? The American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) has published the latest statistics on plastic surgery in the United States for the year 2007. As part of an ongoing series of entries, Dr. Shuster will be commenting upon the latest trends in plastic surgery.
In 2007, there were 399,440 breast augmentations performed by plastic surgeons in this country. Below are some interesting facts regarding this number.
- Of the breast implants placed last year, 60.6% were saline breast implants. 39.4% were silicone gel filled breast implants.
- Breast augmentation was the second most popular cosmetic surgical procedure performed. The most popular was liposuction.
- This represents a 4.1% increase over the number of breast implants placed during the prior year, 2006.
- It is a 295% increase over the number of breast augmentations which were performed ten years ago. In 1997, 101,176 breast augmentations were performed.
- Breast implants are quite rare in the teenage group. Only 2% of breast augmentations are done on patients 18 years of age or younger.
- The most popular age group for breast implants is the 19 to 34 year old group. They accounted for 50.5% of all breast augmentations.
The typical breast augmentation is a surgical procedure which takes less than one hour to perform. Most patients will return to work in less than one week.
