New Aesthetic Society Data: Facelifts, Breast Procedures, and Body Procedures Surged in 2021

Plastic surgery is booming, according to the Aesthetic Society’s annual Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Statistics.

Overall, aesthetic body procedures such as abdominoplasty, buttock augmentation, and liposuction increased by 63 percent since 2020. Breast procedures such as breast augmentation, augmentation/ breast lift and breast lift/reductions were up 48 percent. Specialized face procedures such as brow lifts and face lifts increased by 54 percent last year. 

These marked increases saw Americans spending more than $14.6 billion dollars on aesthetic procedures in 2021 with surgical revenues increasing by 63 percent. 2021 data illustrates a possible effect of life amid the global pandemic, with many Aesthetic Society members signaling to the ubiquity of video meetings and more downtime, to patients undergoing more surgical face and body procedures.

"Our new, more accurate digitally extracted data demonstrates that all major procedure groups had significant increases in the last year," says William P. Adams, Jr., MD, President of The Aesthetic Society, in a news release. "Many factors have facilitated this growth including very high patient satisfaction, the pandemic and patients wanting to do something for themselves— and even some effects from increased video conferencing. As more people continue to pursue these specialized aesthetic procedures, we urge them to also seek a plastic surgeon board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery to receive the highest standard of care and expertise." 

Key Findings of 2021 Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Statistics

• Surgical procedures increased 54% and non-surgical procedures were up 44%.
• The average plastic surgeon performed 320 surgical procedures in 2021, compared with 220 in 2020.
• On average, the cost of a surgical procedure increased 6% in 2021, and the cost of a non-surgical procedure increased 1%.
• Women accounted for approximately 94% of all procedures.
• There were 365,000 breast augmentations performed in 2021 (+44%).  In addition, 148,000 women had implants removed and replaced (+32% from 2020), and 71,000 had their implants removed and not replaced (+47%).
• Surgical procedures accounted for 69% of all revenue, despite being just 21% of total procedures.

The data also identifies the top 6 surgical and non-surgical procedures performed by board-certified U.S. plastic surgeons as follows:

Top Surgical Procedures (By Procedure Count)

• Liposuction: 491,098
• Breast Augmentation: 364,753
• Abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck): 242,939
• Mastopexy (Breast Lift): 167,395
• Blepharoplasty (Eyelid): 149,668
• Breast Implant Removal/Replacement:147,684

Top Non-Surgical Procedures (By Procedure Count)

• Neurotoxins: 3,651,223
• Dermal Fillers: 1,857,339
• Skin Treatment (Chemical Peels, Hydrofacials, etc):1,390,149
• Hair Removal: 454,954
• Skin Treatment (Combination Lasers): 431,485
• Skin Tightening: 391,855

About the statistics

The Aesthetic Society compiled 2021 data using the Aesthetic Neural Network (ANN) data. Partnering with Ronan Solutions, ANN connects directly to participating Aesthetic Society member plastic surgeons' Practice Management systems, retrieving real-time, de-identified billing data. The data is reviewed and mapped by subject matter experts to generate a dynamic, comprehensive, longitudinal, valid, and reliable repository of procedural and billing data. 

ANN's automated, real-time data access also eliminates other drawbacks associated with surveys such as low response rates, cross-sectional data, inaccurate recall, need for manual data entry and the limited number and scope of questions that can be included.

For the 2021 statistics, aggregate data from all 294 participating plastic surgery practices across the U.S. were analyzed. The procedure counts were extrapolated to estimate nationwide statistics. These statistics have a standard error of +/- 5.60% at a 95% level of confidence.

ANN is a complimentary and exclusive benefit available only to Active Aesthetic Society Members. Participating members have access to detailed information about their own practices, and they can see aggregate data of other participants, allowing members the benefit of benchmarking their data against their peers, while protecting their privacy. ANN can retrieve and analyze up to 20 years of data from compatible systems thus offering unparalleled insights in practice management.