Facial Aesthetic Surgical Training May Lag Behind Market Demand, Study Finds

A new analysis published in the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery suggests that US plastic surgery residency programs may not be fully aligned with procedural trends in the growing facial aesthetics market. The study compares Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) case log data from 935 independent-track residents (2013–2021) with national and global procedural volume trends reported by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) between 2014 and 2022.

The authors conducted a comparative trend analysis across five key facial aesthetic procedures: rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty, facelift, brow lift, and a broader category of other head and neck aesthetic procedures. Over the study period, resident operative exposure increased significantly for rhinoplasty (4.35% annually; P = .046), brow lift (4.22%; P = .002), and other head and neck procedures (5.60%; P = .048). However, no significant growth was observed in resident case volume for blepharoplasty or facelift—two procedures that, according to ISAPS data, saw substantial increases in US market demand, at annual rates of 4.90% and 5.70%, respectively.

This mismatch raises questions about whether current training programs are adequately preparing residents for practice in today’s facial aesthetic landscape.

“These findings highlight areas where current training exposure diverges from evolving procedural trends,” the authors wrote. “They provide an objective framework for evaluating alignment between residency education and market demand in facial aesthetic surgery.”