Consulting Room™ 6 Monthly Statistics Reveal Surprising Demand For Belly Button Cosmetic Surgery
Following recent findings from Mintel, we asked is our appetite for cosmetic surgery really sky rocketing? We took the unusual step of analysing the website traffic for www.consultingroom.com after only 6 months of the year to find out more.
Rugby, England (PRWEB) August 8, 2006 -- In February 2006 the UK bank Abbey reported that it had seen a 50% increase in the number of people taking out a personal loan to pay for cosmetic surgery during the first two weeks of January, (traditionally a time when most of us sort out our finances), compared with the same period for 2005. In fact, Paula Ickinger, Abbey's head of personal loans marketing, said: 'Only two or three years ago, the number of people borrowing for cosmetic surgery would have been very few and far between, but now it's become a more regular occurrence.’
Then in July this year, marketing research company, Mintel reported that Britons were likely to spend £659 million on cosmetic procedures in 2007, (amazingly almost £50 million more than we spend on tea). Mintel concluded that this figure would nearly double to almost £1 billion by 2009, following research it carried out in conjunction with the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and the Harley Medical Group. They noted that almost 23% of British woman would consider plastic surgery, compared with just 9% of men, but that currently just 2% of Britons have actually had cosmetic surgery, with cost being the biggest restriction.
Following the findings from Mintel, Which? Magazine commissioned an online survey in July asking people whether they would have cosmetic surgery if it were free, thus dispensing with the financial burden. Results published in its August issue showed that of 1,008 adults surveyed 53% said that yes they would.
So what does all this mean?
Well, Mintel say that the rise is due to cosmetic surgery becoming more socially acceptable, and the reduction in recovery times required for many procedures due to technological innovations; as well as the influence of television and celebrities in increasing its popularity.
But is our appetite for cosmetic surgery really sky rocketing? We took the unusual step of analysing our website traffic (www.consultingroom.com) after only 6 months of the year to try and find out more …
Treatment FAQs
Whether you’re purchasing a new car or a new nose, it’s imperative that you do your research first. At the Consulting Room™, our main goal is to educate and encourage those considering a cosmetic procedure to research all the treatment options currently available to them; hence we have devised our unbiased Treatment FAQs (www.consultingroom.com/Treatment_FAQs)pages which encompass cosmetic surgery procedures, non-surgical treatments, cosmetic dentistry and hair loss procedures.
It seems that our message is certainly proving successful with individual Treatment FAQ pages being accessed almost 150,000 times in the 181 days of the year up to the end of June 2006. The majority of which fell under the non-surgical banner (66,584), followed by cosmetic surgery (63,984), cosmetic dentistry (8,903) and hair loss (6,833).
More interesting than the number of times people are reading these sections is to discover which treatments they are actually interested in reading about. Common stereotypes about cosmetic surgery tell us that this should be dominated by breast implants, face lifts, tummy tucks and nose jobs, but no; the top two surgical Treatment FAQs read in the first 6 months of 2006 were on the topics of fat transfer and umbilicoplasty (navel/belly button surgery).
With non-surgical Treatment FAQs, the results were a bit more predictable with both Laser/IPL skin rejuvenation and hair removal dominating the research, followed by dermal fillers and botulinum toxins.
In addition to the broad details found within our Treatment FAQs, many are also linked to specific Product FAQ information for the various devices and product brands available under each treatment umbrella. Again, consumer research in these areas is high with almost 15,000 individual product FAQ pages read between January and June. In this case though there’s no prizes for guessing that the most popularly researched products were Botox® and Restylane®, the leading botulinum toxin and dermal filler brands; although surprise high interest products included Radiesse™ and Teosyal®, two new dermal fillers heavily promoted in 2006.
Find a Clinic
So, you’ve done your research, read all the facts, think you know what to expect, understand the potential risks, and now it’s time to find a clinic in your local area who is providing your chosen treatment.
And that’s just what over 64,000 people chose to do using our Find a Clinic (www.consultingroom.com/Find_A_Clinic) section in the first six months of this year. Our online directory of clinics allows people to search for practitioners by various criteria including a geographical map, by treatments or products offered, by postcode and by clinic or practitioner name. Over 7,700 chose to search specifically by the treatment criteria (of which 43% were for cosmetic surgery, 50% for non-surgical treatments, 4% for cosmetic dentistry and 3% for hair loss) and over 2,400 searched by product criteria.
Again one could be forgiven for thinking that most people, in accordance with 2005 statistics published by the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) would be searching for clinics offering some of the top five most performed surgical procedures such as breast implants, abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), rhinoplasty (nose job) and blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery); and you’d be right.
Our statistics confirm that the searches for clinics do indeed generally follow the statistics for the UK and USA’s most popularly performed cosmetic surgery procedures. Yet we have found a rogue entry wishing to spoil the party. It seems that like our results for most viewed surgical Treatment FAQ, the most searched for treatment provision for UK clinics in 2006 (so far) is again umbilicoplasty. Given that this was one of the most researched areas on our site, it is perhaps no surprise that many visitors then went looking for a clinic offering it, but it is however a surprise in itself that this should have become such a popularly sought after cosmetic surgery procedure, and shows a potentially interesting growth area within the industry. In fact, according to ASAPS statistics for 2005 over 2,000 umbilicoplasty procedures were performed (aside from those done at the same time as a tummy tuck) in the USA in that year alone.
Within the non-surgical arena, again we see the same pattern. ASAPS quoted that botulinum toxin (Botox®), laser hair removal, dermal fillers, chemical peels and microdermabrasion were amongst the most popular non-surgical procedures carried out in the USA in 2005. Our statistics also show this to be true with all of these treatments appearing in the top ten of those searches carried out to find a clinic. Again, though, these results show a surprisingly high new market entrant – the thread lift. Gaining public and media attention at the beginning of 2005, this procedure is fast becoming an alternative to surgical facelifts for those in their 30s, 40s and 50s who don’t have too much skin laxity.
In addition to searching for a clinic via its treatment offerings, many also choose to search for a clinic by an exact product brand or device. As expected for the world’s number one cosmetic procedure, this primarily results in searches for clinics offering Botox® and more recently Vistabel®.
Yet new technologies which arrived on our shores from the USA during 2004/2005, such as radiofrequency skin tightening devices like the Thermacool™ by Thermage® and the fractional laser skin resurfacing Fraxel™ SR are certainly proving popular, hindered only by the current limitations on the number of clinics offering these treatments, (at the time of writing, this is 16 clinics nationwide for Thermage® and 7 clinics nationwide for Fraxel™).
As also expected, searches for dermal filler and chemical peel providers are also high on people’s lists.
Summary
With year on year UK statistics from BAAPS showing a 34.6% increase for cosmetic surgery procedures performed in 2005 compared with 2004, and the findings of such reports as those carried out by Mintel and ourselves, we can safely conclude that the trend for seeking cosmetic enhancement, whether surgical or non-surgical is most certainly on the up in Britain as well as globally.
However, with such openness and availability it is very easy to get complacent and forget that surgery or even non-surgical procedures are not something to be taken likely and do all carry risks of some kind. We cannot emphasise enough how important it is for all those considering cosmetic enhancements of one kind or another to research what’s involved, using our Which Treatment? and Treatment FAQs sections, as well as remembering to ask questions (see our Useful Tips section - www.consultingroom.com/Useful_Tips) before you embark upon any treatments, and finally be sure to check the credentials of any potential practitioner before agreeing to start treatment (read our Legislation section - www.consultingroom.com/Legislation for more information).
As with most things in life, the best advice available is “Caveat Emptor”- Buyer Beware.
For more information on the UK's largest aesthetic information website, providing clear and unbiased information on a wide range of specialist cosmetic treatments, and including a directory of UK based clinics; please visit www.consultingroom.com
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