Beauty clients shun knife
By Edie Bourne
Cosmetic doctors are reporting an upsurge in non-surgical treatments as more patients shun the scalpel.
Non-surgical treatments now account for over 80% of patients seen at one London clinic and, with no need for general anaesthetic, no time off work and some sizeable financial savings for patients, the clinic says it is easy to see why.
CosmeDocs of Harley Street said rhinoplasty, for instance, required two hours under the knife and seven days of full rest following the procedure and a potentially more painful price tag of £3,768 on average.
But the non-surgical nose job, using fillers injected into the nose, takes just half an hour under local anaesthetic and costs an average of £317, saving patients £3,451.
It reports a 140% increase in inquiries for this procedure in the past year and similar interest growth over a range of other treatments.
The company has also seen an upward trend for some procedures where there are no non-surgical alternatives – breast reduction, abdominoplasty and breast augmentation, which have risen 89%, 39% and 42%.
CosmeDocs’ Dr Toni Burke said: ‘More and more we’re seeing patients going for the “little and often” approach, rather than full surgery.
‘Although cosmetic procedures have a more pronounced and longer-lasting effect, concerns over their permanence as well as going under general anaesthetic, and longer recovery times can make people think twice.’
The table below shows the surgical and non-surgical alternatives for some top procedures, as well as price, length of procedure, downtime required and the increase in inquiries, sourced by private health search engine, WhatClinic.com.
