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United States

Top countries for plastic surgery? We're No. 1

Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY
The USA has the most plastic surgeons and performs the largest number of procedures, international data show.
  • USA has the most plastic surgeons and procedures
  • Rates of procedures by population are higher in South Korea%2C Greece and Italy
  • Nose jobs are performed most often in China%2C Japan and Brazil

The USA remains the plastic surgery capital of the world when it comes to sheer numbers of lifts, tucks and implants, an international survey shows. Brazil is not far behind, according to the latest analysis from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.

But rates by population actually are higher in South Korea, Greece and Italy, where more than 10 procedures were performed for every 1,000 people in 2011, according to a breakdown of the data by the Economist.

The society's report covers 6.3 million surgeries and 8.3 million non-surgical procedures (from Botox injections to laser hair removal and chemical peels) performed by plastic surgeons in 2011. Just over 21%, or 3.1 million procedures, were done in the USA.

The findings are based on surveys of 996 plastic surgeons around the world and they assume that fellow surgeons in each country have similar procedure rates. Procedures done by dermatologists or other providers are not included.

Other tidbits:

  • While breast augmentation is the top surgical procedure in the USA, the top plastic surgery worldwide is lipoplasty (fat removal, also known as liposuction).
  • When it comes to nose jobs, the USA isn't even in the top three. Rhinoplasty is performed most often in China, Japan and Brazil.
  • The USA has the most plastic surgeons, 5,950; Brazil, with 5,024, and China, with 2000, come in second and third. By contrast, the United Kingdom has just 450 and Canada has 425.

Maybe those numbers in the United Kingdom will need to go up: According to the Daily Mail, surgeons there are seeing a surge in patients requesting Kate Middleton's nose.

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