Plastic Cosmetic Surgery For Men

Need proof that cosmetic surgery and men is now a mainstream marriage? Check out these statistics: While women still make up 87 percent of all cosmetic surgery patients, 1.2 million procedures were performed on men in 2004. That's a 16 percent increase since 2000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

"More men than ever before are getting plastic surgery," said Dr. Brent Moelleken, a Beverly Hills, Calif., plastic and reconstructive surgeon who says up to 20 percent of his practice includes men. "Ten years ago, it was just 5 to 10 percent." Men choose to improve many of the same body parts as women. But they're different as cosmetic surgery patients in other ways, say the doctors who work on them.

The top five male cosmetic surgeries in 2004 were nose reshaping, hair transplantation, eyelid surgery, liposuction and breast reduction, according to the ASPS. Another organization that keeps statistics, the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), has the same top five surgeries for men, although in a slightly different order.

Plastic Surgery For Men  

(New York City) Craig Sowash, a 43-year-old sales manager with a pulp and paper company, says he feels more confident with customers ever since he had the wrinkles on his face smoothed out with a few injections.

And if he ever needs a little surgery at some point to produce permanent results, he says, "I won't be shy about pulling the trigger." Competition for corporate jobs among aging baby boomers, along with quicker, cheaper and less invasive techniques, and greater attention to grooming among men are helping drive an increase in cosmetic procedures among the male of the species.

Confessions of a Park Avenue Plastic Surgeon

After three thrilling, exhausting, mind-bending years at Stanford, I came east for another residency, this one specializing in plastic surgery, at the Cornell and New York Hospital, another world-renowned institution. In North Carolina I'd learned to be a doctor, in California a surgeon. In New York, I would learn to be a plastic surgeon.

At New York Hospital, I learned an enormous amount - about different types of face-lifts, about rhinoplasties, about dealing with burns. At Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, one of my last rotations, I did reconstructive surgery on cancer patients. As a surgeon doing that kind of work your mind-set is very different from what it is when you do cosmetic work. You're not worried at all about scars. Instead, you're doing things like repairing large defects and covering chest holes. You're happy if the patient is just able to leave the hospital alive.

I also learned who some of the good guys in New York medicine were, and who were the bad guys.

China's Women Seek Extreme Plastic Surgery Makeovers in Race for Jobs, Husbands

Chinese tour guide Gao Fei last year had her eyelids cut and nose sharpened to make her look like her favorite Japanese pop singer, hoping cosmetic surgery would improve her chances of becoming an actress.

``If I'm in a job interview with someone of similar experience and qualifications, the one who looks prettier would definitely have an advantage,'' said Gao, 23, as she waited in a Shanghai clinic for a checkup after the two operations.

Plastic surgery -- outlawed by China's Communist party until the early 1980s, when it was permitted for medical reasons -- is a $3 billion business, testament to rising incomes and expanding social freedom in the world's most populous nation. The demand also underscores intensifying competition for jobs, as the once centrally planned economy becomes market-oriented.

``People these days regard plastic surgery as an investment as it will help them to get a good job or attract a man of their dreams,'' said Lee Jong Won, 48, a Korean plastic surgeon who works at Shanghai's Beauty China Medical Center, a venture between Ruijin Hospital Group and Korean investors.

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