Orange County Register

Asian Americans are turning to plastic surgery at a faster pace than any other group, according to a new survey by the American Society for Plastic Surgeons. Compared to 2006, the number of cosmetic medical procedures for Asian Americans grew 26 percent last year, to a total of 767,800, the survey found.

The increase for the overall population was 7 percent.

That compares to increases of:

• 8 percent for Latinos, to a total of 1,011,000 procedures last year.
• 8 percent for African Americans, for a total of 847,800.
• 1 percent for men, with a total of 1,116,000.
• 8 percent for women, with a total of 10,678,000.

The most frequent surgical procedures for Asian patients were nose reshaping, breast augmentation and eyelid surgery, the society said.

Plastic surgery has been increasing in popularity among Asian patients for several years. In 2004, for example, people of color accounted for 20 percent of all cosmetic-surgery procedures, up from 14 percent in 2000, according to a report by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, which is a rival to the group that released this week’s survey.

In that earlier report, Asians accounted for 4.6 percent of all procedures. Comparable figures were 8.5 percent for Hispanics; 6.2 percent for blacks; and 1.1 percent for other nonwhites.

The overall percentage of ethnic patients has grown to about 22 percent, according to the new statistics from the American Society for Plastic Surgeons. That includes 6.5 percent for Asians, 8.5 percent (unchanged) for Hispanics, and 7.1 percent for blacks.

For both Latino and black patients, nose reshaping and liposuction were among the most popular treatments last year, the new survey found. For Latinos, breast augmentation was a favorite, while breast reduction was more popular for black patients.

Overall, breast enhancements were the No. 1 surgical procedure (a total of 348,000), followed by liposuction (301,000) and nose reshaping (285,000).

Botox injections were the No. 1 minimally invasive cosmetic procedure, at 4.6 million, followed by injections of dermal filler at 1.05 million.

The society did not publish a breakdown of non-invasive procedures by ethnic group. It also did not publish separate data for cosmetic surgery for white patients, who accounted for about 78 percent of last year’s total of 11.8 million cosmetic procedures.

For more information, see extensive 2007 statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the 2005 O.C. Register article by Katherine Nguyen, “More Beautiful in Any Color.”

Register photo above by Eugene Garcia from 2005 shows cosmetic-surgery patients Jean Park, left, and Shelly Moon with their before and after pictures.

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