The Growing Demand For Comsetic Procedures

Overview of Cosmetic Industry

It has been our fascination with youth and beauty that has fueled the development of medical products for cosmetic purposes. These products have been described as "Vanity Drugs" and it is a multi billion-dollar industry .

Carol Rados made this statement in the FDA Consumer Magazine and he paints an accurate picture. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Americans spent almost 12.5 billion dollars on nearly 11.5 million cosmetic procedures in 2005 . The overall number of cosmetic procedures has increased 444 percent since 1997. However it is not America as a whole that is fascinated with youth and beauty, but American women. Of the 11.5 million procedures performed, nearly 10.5 million or 91 percent were women . Even more specifically, nearly 47 percent of all cosmetic procedures were performed on adults between the ages of 35 and 50.

According to Medicard's Cosmetic Surgery Statistics, these statistics are even higher just north of the US boarder. In 2003, 87 percent of all cosmetic procedures were performed on adults between the ages of 35 and 50 and Canadian women were the recipients of almost 86% of all cosmetic procedures Canada. In 2003 Canadians spent $665.4 million on over 302,000 cosmetic procedures . These statistics reveal a vital fact about the cosmetic industry in America and even more so in Canada; women between the ages of 35 and 50 are the target market. It is predicted that as the Baby Boomer generation continues to age and seek out new, creative and innovative ways to slow down this process, the "medical aesthetic" industry in North America could easily surpass $20 billion by the end of 2006 . This prediction is largely based on the prominence of a booming trend in the cosmetic surgery world that has driven its surplus through the roof, lunchtime procedures.