Demand Up, Fees Down

The latest study from The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), stratifies data by age, gender, and surgical fees. The ASPS, the world's largest plastic surgery organization, represents 92% of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States; study findings were released as supplemental data to its 2022 procedural statistics.

"Looking deeper into the trends that are driving the data in the 2022 study, we're continuing to see patients prioritize comfort and self-confidence above all," said ASPS President Steven Williams, MD, in a press release. "Alongside the increasing interest in plastic surgery, and as new techniques, products and trends continue to emerge, it is imperative to ASPS that the pursuit of beauty and comfort remains rooted in safety, authenticity and wellbeing."

Patients continued to “spend and invest in themselves,” despite high inflation in a post-pandemic economy, the data revealed. The average surgeon's fees for minimally invasive procedures are also lower than most surgical procedures, ranging from $530 to $1,800. The surgeon's fee for cosmetic surgeries can range from $3,000 to $10,000. In 2022, patients spent upwards of $26 billion on both minimally invasive and surgical procedures in the US.

The surgeon, procedure, and region can influence cost although on average, “fees for some popular procedures either decreased in cost or rose less than inflation in 2022,” it was noted.

More demand has led to more supply, and, in some cases, decreasing costs since 2019. Although inflation in 2022 reached nearly 7%, the costs for surgeries such as cheek implants, chin augmentation, and ear surgery increased only between 3% to 4%, the report indicated. The top procedures that experienced a decline in average fees include:

• Eyelid surgery dropped by $900
• Breast augmentation dropped by almost $500
• Noninvasive fat reduction dropped by almost $260
• Nonsurgical skin tightening dropped by $476