Impact on Economy

Figure1. Nadia llse - who got free plastic surgery from Little Baby Face Foundation.

Retrieved from: http://www.mamanatural.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/nadia-ilse-2.jpg

Plastic surgery in resource-poor settings - the development of a sustainable plastic surgical program

Plastic surgery has always been associated with the rich and the privileged in society. In an economy, it is commonly regarded as a luxury good whose demand increases elastically with income. Traditionally, only the financially well-off have the resource to go for safe and elaborate cosmetic procedures. As such, the development of surgery in low- and middle-income countries has been limited by a belief that it is too expensive to be sustainable. Aesthetic operations in those countries therefore suffer many complications, some common examples of which being partial wound dehiscence and cleft disorders (Hughes CD, et al., 2012). Plastic surgical disease is a significant source of morbidity for patients in resource-limited regions. This calls for a development of sustainable and dedicated programs, first focusing on the top priority of providing essential reconstructive surgery. Such programs can produce substantial clinical and economic benefits to host countries.

Cosmetic surgery and Economic growth

According to a study done by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) in 2009, teenagers between the ages 13 to 19 accounted for 210,000 cosmetic surgery procedures in America alone. In addition, an overall average of over $10 billion is spent on all U.S. cosmetic surgeries each year, over $1.2 billion is spent annually on liposuction and more than $1.1 billion is spent annually on breast augmentation. This shows that plastic surgery has a sizable impact on the country’s economy growth. This impact is more evident in countries such as Korea and Thailand where cosmetic surgery permeates deep into society with millions of cosmetic procedures being done every year.

In certain situations, plastic surgery can be an indicator of economic growth (Donald Brown, 2012). That is to say, there is a correlation between the level of an economy's consumption on plastic surgery and the level of economic growth of that society. As the economy falls into recession, people suffers much tighter finances, and less people go for plastic surgery while as economy grows, more people go for plastic surgery. For the U.S, way back in 2005 before the recession, plastic surgery's popularity was truly peaking: in the country, nearly 11.5 million cosmetic procedures were performed that year, 2.1 million of which were cosmetic surgeries, and expensive, invasive surgeries like nose jobs and facelifts topped the list of preferred procedures. In 2011, however, in face of economic recession, the total number of cosmetic surgeries dropped significantly from 2.1 million in 2005 to 1.58 million. In its yearly report, the ASPS has demonstrated that plastic surgery is a pretty accurate barometer for the health of the economy. (Brown, 2012).

Furthermore, different types of plastic surgery procedures relate to various economic indicators in different ways. Body cosmetic procedures such as have positive correlations with all the economic indicators, among which GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has the strongest correlation (correlation between breast augmentation volume and GDP reaches a value as high as 0.932). As consumer spending increases, more individuals are willing to pay for breast augmentation, mastopexy, and abdominoplasty. Mounting employment rates did not detour patients from undergoing body cosmetic procedures. On the other hand, facial cosmetic procedures such as blepharoplasty, facelift, and rhinoplasty have negative correlations with GDP and unemployment rate. (Kim E, M.D. et al., 2012)

Table 1. Correlation Coefficient Relating Economic Indicators to Plastic Surgery Volumes (Kim E, M.D. et al., 2012)

Plastic surgery provides lift in our saggy economy

On a different note, cosmetic surgery presents a lift or at least an injection of good news for our droopy economy. In America, the number of cosmetic plastic surgery procedures jumped 5 percent to 14.6 million in 2012, according statistics released by the Arlington Heights-based American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Non-invasive aesthetic operations such as facelift, eyelid surgeries, chemical peels, Botox wrinkle treatment saw increases in the total number of procedures done as well as the total amount of consumer consumption.

The reason of the surge is explained by increasing demand for such procedures in a depressed economy. Increased competitiveness in the job market has led to people actively looking for ways to enhance their perceived competence in the workforce, and improving outer appearance is a popular solution in consideration. "Workers hoping to stay employed and applicants interviewing for jobs often feel it is to their advantage to look younger, especially in occupations like sales, where you are really in front of people." (Constable B, 2013)

Improvements in technology has also allowed those procedures to be done with much faster recovery time, hence patients are not required to miss chunks of work. Through this, we can see that the condition of a country's economy serves as a driver for technological innovation. Increased competitiveness of the job market raises a need for quicker and more efficient cosmetic procedures, which drives technological progress in the field of aesthetic surgery in that particular direction.

Economy and aesthetic industry affect each other in a two-way relationship. The condition of the economy serves as a driver for change in technologies whereas technology provides a hope for the limited demand for surgical procedures in a dampened economy.

Medical tourism

There is a definite economic angle to plastic surgery. Cosmetic surgery has created a thriving business in "medical tourism", a case in which a resident of one country travels to another country to take advantage of cheaper cosmetic procedures (Simpson S, 2012). In the past, it was common for wealthy individuals from less-developed countries to travel to countries with more established and developed medical industry to undergo safer and more advanced cosmetic procedures. Nowadays, however, "medical tourism" has now spread to a more mainstream customer base whereby middle-income individuals travel overseas to enjoy lower costs of surgeries. South Korea, Brazil, Colombia and Thailand are all famous as destinations where patients can receive quality care at substantially lower prices than in countries such as the U.S.

"Medical tourism" provides an example of aesthetic technology crossing to another realm of the economy apart from its own place in the healthcare industry, namely the realm of tourism. Although plastic surgery is not the most economically significant activity in global healthcare, but its impacts are diverse and far-reaching for cosmetic procedures commonly regarded as "medically unnecessary".

The Little Baby Face Foundation

The Little Baby Face Foundation (LBFF) provides an example of plastic surgery interacting with the economy's under-privileged. It is a foundation set up to give free facial surgery to poor children born with facial deformities, including microtia, atresia, cleft lip and palate, facial palsy, hemangioma and hemifacial microsomia, as well as elective cosmetic surgery for children who feel they do not meet society's normative standards of beauty. Physicians and facilities in New York volunteer their time and provide corrective surgery and medical care to children who are in financial need worldwide.

The Little Baby Face Foundation was founded in 2002, based on a new model of treatment to help children born with facial deformities and unaesthetic features such as protruding ears. An example of such treatment can be illustrated by the case of Nadia llse, a 14 year-old girl bullied by her classmate because of her "elephant ears" (shown in the picture below). She received $40,000 worth of free plastic surgery from the Little Baby Face Foundation to fix the feature.

Rather than traveling to third world countries for the treatment of a limited number of conditions, LBFF brings children suffering from all kinds of facial deformities and imperfections to facilities in New York where volunteers work as a team to assess and ensure the safety of medical and surgical treatments, without any cost imposed on their families. Data shows that about 90,000 youths had plastic surgery in 2007. Hence, they contribute a lot to the country's economy.