Be it a new mother who wants to shed the extra flab or a recent collegiate wanting to look fabulous on campus, more people in India are going under the knife to enhance their features and get "the killer look", according to a recent global survey.
Conducted by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the survey ranks India as four in the list of top five countries in the world in the number of people going for surgical and non surgical procedures to enhance their features.
The survey included the top 25 countries representing 75 per cent of all procedures performed by board certified plastic surgeons in 2009.
Also, continent wise Asia leads with 5,704,277 procedures overall followed by North America at 4,155,955 and Europe at 3,538,319.
"There has been a shift in the perception of beauty with time. In a competitive world people want to look younger and fresher and they are opting for procedures that will take away years from their face," says Sanjay Parashar, a leading cosmetologist in the country.
"Mummy makeovers" for new mothers,facial rejuvenation, tummy tucks, high definition liposuction, breast augmentation and contouring are among the procedures that are quite popular among clients, he says.
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India saw 683,160 surgical procedures in 2009 and 211,540 non surgical procedures totalling to 894,700, which is 5.2 per cent of overall procedures performed in these 25 countries.
In the surgical procedures category, Liposuction tops with total of 1,607,979 people getting the job done in the world, followed by Breast Augmentation (1,454,317) and blepharoplasty (upper or lower eyelid lift, 1,153,756).
Indian surgeons performed 117,140 cases of liposuction, 109,580 of Breast Augmentation, 60,280 of Rhinoplasty (nose reshaping) and 54,720 of Abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck).
United States leads the list followed by China and Brazil. The top ten includes Mexico at 5th place followed by Japan, South Korea, Germany, Turkey and Spain. France is at 14th, UK at 17th and Australia at 21st while bottom is occupied by Portugal.
"We are seeing a lot of people from the US and the west opting to get their surgeries in India. This may be because apart from being cheaper we also have a very good infrastructure and are also good at communicating in English compared to say countries like China," says Dr Parashar.
Surgeons have also recorded an increase of clients to India from countries such as Nigeria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
India has 2,000 board certified plastic surgeons compared to 5,700 in USA, while the total surgeons in the 25 countries is 30,817.
In non surgical procedures for feature enhancement, Botulinum (Botox Dysport) injection was used for age related skin ailments in 2,860,238 cases in the world.
Non surgical procedures seem less popular in India as it features only once in top five in the five different categories. 74,140 cases were administered with Botox injections while Autologous Fat Injections were used in 25,860 cases by Indian doctors.
India's rapid rise in the list is seen due to rich people's desire to look perfect and different, according to psychologist Sanjay Chugh.
"Such people have a negative self-image. They want to overcome the inferiority complex and since there are options available to do so, they get their features enhance," he says.
"The trend is mainly restricted to metros like Delhi and Mumbai as people have money to spend on such costly treatments," he adds.
Delhi-based surgeon, Sanjay Haldar says he receives atleast four to five calls for consultations daily which get converted to 3 to 4 procedures in a week.
"While the middle aged persons want to do away with ageing like wrinkles, sagging skin, the young see acne, scar as main problems," he says.
"I also receive calls where people want to have features like a celebrity and the lips of Angelina Jolie are one of the popular trends," he adds.
While most surgical treatments are lifelong doctors say there is no guarantee for changing lifestyles of clients.
"Usually we sit with our clients and make them understand the downside of the treatments which are permanent, guiding them to maintain a good lifestyle so that they can enjoy the results," says Dr Parashar.