The number of Americans undergoing plastic surgery on their chin rose dramatically last year, according to a new report from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
In 2011, more than 20,600 people received "chin augmentation," a plastic surgery procedure that reshapes the chin with implants or by moving bones. That's up from about 12,000 chin augmentation procedures in 2010, the report says.
Slightly more than half of chin augmentations were done in men. The largest increase was among people older than 40, the report says.
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"The chin and jaw line are among the first areas to show signs of aging. People are considering chin augmentation as a way to restore their youthful look," said Dr. Malcolm Roth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
The report offered the increasing use of video-chat technology as one reason for the increase.
"As more people see themselves on video-chat technology, they may notice that their jaw line is not as sharp as they want it to be," Roth said.
However, chin augmentation procedures are not at an all-time high. In 2000, close to 27,000 people underwent the procedure, according to the report.
Here are some more observations about plastic surgery in 2011 from the report:
- Americans had 13.8 million cosmetic procedures, the majority of which were minimally invasive procedures, such as Botox injections.
- Americans spent $10.4 billion on cosmetic procedures, up nearly 3 percent from 2010.
- 91 percent of all plastic surgery procedures were performed in women.
- People living in the Pacific and Mountain regions of the United States had the most cosmetic procedures, at 3.9 million.
- The top plastic surgery procedure in women was breast augmentation (307,000 procedures), and the top minimally invasive procedure was Botox (5.3 million procedure).
- The top plastic surgery procedure in men was nose reshaping (62,000 procedures), and the top minimally invasive procedure was Botox (363,000).
- About 230,000 cosmetic procedures were performed in teens ages 13 to 19 (two percent of all procedures).
- For most procedures, people living in the Pacific and Mountain regions accounted for the greatest number of cases. However, 23 percent of all buttocks lifts were performed in the Northeast, compared with 13 percent in the Pacific and Mountain regions.
Pass it on: More people are undergoing plastic surgery on their chin, possibly due to the increasing ubiquity of video-chat technology
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