Plastic Surgery Trends 2022

Since the pandemic started, we’ve seen a larger rise in plastic surgery than perhaps ever before. Between ever-changing economic landscapes and patients’ willingness to take advantage of masks and quarantines, we witnessed the largest rise in annual cases last year. That being said, as the pandemic has drawn on, we’ve seen a gradual decrease in demand as demonstrated by the Google Trends chart for the search term: ‘plastic surgery.’

Last year, Chrissy Tiegen, made a big announcement that she had a procedure called buccal fat removal performed. This little-known procedure became front-page news. While this surgery has been around for decades, the publicity will lead to continued interest over the next year.

As we see increased demand combined with inflation, it is unlikely that plastic surgery will get cheaper in the United States. Typically, that would mean that medical tourism for plastic surgery would boom; however, with yet another round of travel restrictions, patients are thinking twice about going overseas for plastic surgery.

Kybella is a non-invasive fat dissolving injection that was FDA approved in 2014. While it was initially very popular, we have noticed that its use is declining secondary to a low satifaction rating amongst patients: a 57% satisfaction rating. Taking its throne is the traditional chin liposuction procedure that rose to prominence at the same time as Zoom.