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According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the decrease in the number of cosmetic procedures performed in 2020, compared to 2019, was very much in line with the amount of time lost by doctors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is estimated that 15.6 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2020, compared to 18.4 million in 2019, a drop of 15.2%. Meanwhile, members of the society reported that they stopped performing elective surgery for an average of 8.1 weeks, which is 15.6% of a 52-week year, the ASPS reported in its annual statistical report.
“The pandemic is not over, but thanks to vaccines, a new normal is beginning to be defined, and some surgeon offices that closed or offer only limited services over the past year are experiencing greater demand,” he said. Lynn Jeffers, MD, MBA, immediate president of the ASPS, said in a written statement.
Minimally invasive procedures, which accounted for most cosmetic procedures in 2020, fell 16% slightly higher, compared to 14% on the surgical side. “Injectables continued to be the most requested treatments in 2020,” the ASPS said, and respondents cited “a significant increase in demand during the coronavirus pandemic.”
OnabotulinumtoxinA injection, the most popular form of minimally invasive procedure, fell 13% from 2019, while the use of soft tissue fillers fell 11%. Laser skin coating it was the third most popular and recorded the smallest drop, just 8%, among the top five from 2019 to 2020, according to ASPS data.
The fall in the volume of chemical skins was large enough (33%), to move from third place in 2019 to fourth place in 2020, and a fall slightly below the average of 12% moved the intense treatments of pulsed light from from sixth place in 2019 to fifth in 2020, changing places with laser hair removal (28% lower), according to ASPS.
Among surgical procedures, rhinoplasty was the most popular in 2020, as it was in 2019, after falling by only 3%. Blepharoplasty was down 8% from 2019, but there are two more common procedures, liposuction and breast augmentation, fell 20% and 33%, respectively, according to the ASPS.
This article originally appeared on MDedge.com, which is part of the Medscape professional network.
