Plastic Surgery Trends for Spring (and Beyond)

The shutdowns, shelter-in-place orders and quarantines of 2020 led to an increase in demand for plastic surgery in 2021. As spring begins across the country, there are certain procedures and trends that are emerging as favorites for patients all across the United States. Let’s take a look at the procedures that are popular choices to enhance and update the appearance of patients in 2021.

Combating the Changes Caused by Stress

The stress of staying safe from the pandemic, having to work from home and being separated from family and friends has resulted in many people trying to find a way to rejuvenate their appearance and gain a more youthful look. From fillers and Botox to facelifts and blepharoplasty, the desire to look youthful is driven by more than the stress felt by people on a daily basis. Many employees are not sure when they will physically have to go back to work in the office so they want to be prepared by having cosmetic treatments sooner rather than later.

Cosmetic Treatments Taking the Place of Shopping and Travel

In the past, many people with extra money and time would likely go shopping and use their extra cash on clothes or trips. In the current COVID-19 climate, the need to stay close to home has created less of a need for work clothes or taking trips to other countries. Now that patients have money they were not expecting thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, they are often turning to cosmetic treatments to make changes they have been considering in their appearance. They also have the benefit of more downtime at home since they do not have to go into an office for work and interact with others on a face-to-face basis. The ability to recover at home has also increased the number of chemical peels and light and laser therapy treatments being performed.

Multiple Procedures at Once is a Plastic Surgery Trend

One of the biggest differences between pre-COVID and post-COVID cosmetic trends is the number of trips patients are willing to make each week. Instead of spacing out medical visits to a doctor, they often want to have multiple procedures at one time. This means that patients are now spending many hours at the office of a doctor instead of, for example, getting in and out of an office in less than an hour for Botox or fillers or another solo treatment.

Since many patients do not want to make multiple trips to the doctor, they are also waiting longer amounts of time between treatments. They are often asking for standard doses of injectables instead of smaller injections that require more maintenance and/or more frequent visits to the doctor to maintain their appearance.

Permanent Solutions Grow in Popularity

Thanks to the ability to hide the recovery process while working at home, patients are often choosing to have more invasive procedures. One example is patients having a procedure like liposuction so they can wear compression garments at home and not have their video camera on during Zoom calls.

Patients also find that it saves money (in the long run) to go ahead and have a facelift or liposuction that provide long-lasting results instead of fillers or Thermage that need additional follow-up treatments to maintain the results.

Patients Address the Face, Neck and Chin

The new “on-camera’ style of work where many meetings are conducted over Zoom has resulted in a growth in the number of treatments designed to make changes to the face, neck and chin of a person.

There are a good number of patients that are lacking self-confidence or have a less than positive self-image after having to view their appearance on a daily basis on video calls. They often want to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles or address sagging skin on the neck or the cheeks that might lead to an older look on-camera.

Some of the most popular options include Kybella to destroy fat under the chin, Botox to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and a thread lift to elevate the look of sagging cheeks, brows or jowls.

Plastic Surgery Trends for the Rest of the Year – A Look Ahead

While the demand for plastic surgery is popular right now, some doctors are expecting to see a dip in the number of procedures performed later in the year. As more Americans get the coronavirus vaccine over the next few months, they will likely want to travel or spend time with family and friends as opposed to recovering from an invasive cosmetic surgery procedure.

On the other hand, there are some dermatologists that expect patients to be comfortable resuming their old activities while also continuing to receive injectables on a regular basis. Since they will be out and about visiting others, they will want their youthful appearance to be seen by the public. They anticipate that people are going to happy doing things that make them feel better about their appearance and that includes a regular series of appointments where they have injectables placed in targeted areas of the face.

- MA