Slowdown in Plastic Surgery Indicative of Recession
An issue of concern at a recent meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons was the apparent slowdown in treatments that is being seen across the industry. A recent Wall Street Journal news article (available here) took a look at that issue and how it reflects a greater economic downturn in our society.
"While anecdotal, the industry chatter is the latest worrying hint of a broader slowdown in consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of the U.S. economy -- and fodder for a broader debate on how deep such a slowdown might bite. The big question is whether the triple whammy of falling home prices, still-high energy prices and a credit crunch will crimp consumer spending so much that the nation slides into recession." (source)
As for the plastic surgery industry itself, the cutbacks seem to be visible across the board. From
tummy tucks to
breast augmentation, there seems to be less interest in spending money on enhancing the body. However, reports from doctors vary on what the specific changes in customer interest are. Some doctors are seeing an ovreall reduction in the number of plastic surgeries being requested. Others are seeing a slowdown in ahead-of-time bookings which could just indicate that patients are delaying their surgeries to see what happens with their bank accounts first.
An area of cosmetic enhancement that doesn't seem to be slowing down is
skin rejuvenation. Minimally invasive procedures such as
Botox injections are still being purchased in about the same amount by consumers. This could be an indication that although people are concerned about high-price surgeries such as breast augmentation, they aren't so afraid of the changing economy that they're putting their money into savings instead of into improving themselves.
Question of the Day: How concerned are you about the current state of the economy?photo link
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