When many people think of cosmetic procedures, their minds immediately turn to breast augmentation or facelifts as being the most popular. While it is true that both of these procedures have remained consistently popular over the years, some surprising data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) shows that cosmetic procedures focusing on the buttocks have the largest percentage increase from year to year. The ASPS is the largest professional organization for plastic surgeons and conducts an annual survey of its members. The 2015 survey data has just been released and shows some interesting trends in terms of procedures targeting the buttocks. Here, Dr. Paul Pin reviews some of the data provided by ASPS, with a particular focus on the popularity of buttock procedures.

Overall Popularity of Buttock Procedures

According to the survey data, a total of almost 16 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed in 2015, which represented a 2 percent increase from 2014. Of these, more than 22,000 treatments enhanced the buttocks. In 2014, almost 17,000 such procedures were performed, so there was an approximate 30 percent increase in buttock procedures between 2014 and 2015.

Common Buttock Procedures

Buttock augmentation using fat grafting was the most popular of these procedures, both in 2014 (more than 11,000) and in 2015 (almost 15,000). This translated into an increase of more than a quarter (28 percent) in this procedure from 2014 to 2015.

There were more than 4,700 buttock lift procedures performed in 2015, as compared to more than 3,500 procedures performed in 2014. Overall, the number of these procedures being performed increased by more than one-third (36 percent) between 2014 and 2015.

Buttock augmentation using implants saw the greatest increase. The increase from 2014 (more than 1,800) to 2015 (more than 2,500) represented a 36 percent jump.

Longer Lasting Results

Buttock augmentation using implants lasts longer than one using fat grafts, which may eventually be reabsorbed into the body. Although fat grafts are considered less invasive than buttock implants, the fact that implant procedures increased more than ones using fat grafting may mean that patients are interested more in longevity of results than the level of surgical invasiveness. In fact, the number of buttock implant procedures almost doubled from 2013 to 2014 (98 percent). While this may reflect improvements in buttock augmentation procedures, this dramatic rise may also indicate that patients considering buttock augmentation do not wish to undergo numerous fat grafting procedures.

Why Buttock Procedures?

As expected, breast augmentation and BOTOX® injections respectively remained the most popular cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures for 2015, but both only shifted upward by 2 percent and 1 percent. In the case of buttock procedures, which far outpaced breast augmentation and BOTOX® injections in terms of percentage increases, it may be that patients who have already undergone earlier enhancements to the breast and face are now considering other ways to improve their overall appearance. Nevertheless, it is clear that improvement to the bottom is on the rise.