Look-good factor boosts cosmetic surgery business

CHENNAI: It’s virtually a personal re-engineering of sorts. Scores of people are nipping, tucking, injecting and implanting themselves in their quest to achieve the “self-esteem” makeover.

India, which has a plastic surgeon population of 1,200, is seeing the number growing each year by 50, as those seeking to enhance their appearance and beauty are rising in fair numbers.

If cosmetic surgery still continues to be a rage among women, it is now attracting the male fraternity’s interest, even in places like Chennai and Coimbatore. Men, too, are going under the scalpel, to keep their vanity and selfconfidence intact. Procedures like browptosis, blepharoplasty are also proving to be necessary to get over medical problems.

Apollo Hospital senior plastic surgeon Dr Nirmala Subramanian said the surgery around the eye is a common practise. “Eyebrows start drooping down as we age and the shape changes with the expression of the eye. If the inner part droops then the look is an annoyed one while the outer part shows the sad expression,” she said, adding there were a variety of methods that could be used to address the browptosis problem.

Noting that only well-equipped hospitals must handle such treatments, she said costs involved ranged between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000. Eye-related aesthetic treatment may constitute just less than 5% of the multi-billion dollar cosmetic surgery business but the awareness is increasing.

“In the US, blepharoplasty is the commonest aesthetic surgery, costing $5,000—10,000. Whereas, the same thing can be done for $1000 here,” Dr Subramanian said adding overseas patients too were taking to this cost advantage. With Tamil Nadu, promoting itself as a premium medical tourism destination, there has also been an upswing in the number of overseas patients, for whom the leisure-cosmetic combine is available at a fraction of the costs.

Says Dr S Arumugam, a veteran of over 15,000 cosmetic surgeries and promoter of Chicago Cosmetic Surgery Group, a procedure like rhinoplasty, which would have easily cost around Rs 4-5 lakh abroad can be performed at about Rs 45,000 to Rs 50,000 in India.

Having done over 2,100 breast enlargements, he said the awareness on the need to feel and look good and thereby boost self-confidence, is picking up. The group has set up two hospitals exclusively for cosmetic surgery in Chenani and Mumbai at an investment of Rs ten crore. It is planning to add another nine in next two years. The fullfledged facility here will have seven beds and three operation theatres.

It is also considering satellite centres in Coimbatore and Goa. The most sought after procedures are nose, liposuction, tummy tucks and breast surgeries. Among men, hair transplant and nose alterations are quite popular. Even the economically-weak, in their attempts to become marriageable, are finding these techniques useful.

“Our motive is not revenue alone. The fact that a person saves Rs 500 over six months to undertake such procedures gives us professional satisfaction,” Dr Arumugam added.

While body sculpting and contouring were thought to be extremely popular among late twenties and thirties clientele, youngsters too are swarming these centres to keep pace with the near-perfect figure. According to Sankara Nethralaya vice-chairman Dr T S Surendran, aesthetics is into full swing. Several people opt for botox, one of the most common procedures to remove wrinkles.

“Patients want their crow’s feet, glabella or forehead folds and facial folds to disappear. Botox is injected into the lachrymal glands to cure the crocodile tear syndrome,” he said. Mainly cinestars are known to be extra cautious about their crow feet and sagging parts, though lately it is catching up with other sections too, he added.

Depressions in face are given the makeover by using aesthetic fillers. The cost measurable, in unit terms, works out Rs 2,000 for ten units. Typically, a person needs around 40 to 50 units, Dr Surendran said.