Teen plastic surgery on the rise says American Society of Plastic Surgeons

A growing number of teenagers are undergoing plastic surgery to alter their appearance. According to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) about 229,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on patients aged 13 to 19 in 2017, though research by board-certified plastic surgeons Rod J. Rohrich and Min-Jeong Cho of the Dallas Plastic Surgery Institute found that very few guidelines are in place to ensure teen plastic surgeries are performed appropriately. 

Currently, teenagers account for about 4% of all cosmetic surgery procedures, with the most common procedures being nose reshaping, male breast reduction and ear surgery. Adolescents also account for a small percentage of total non-surgical cosmetic procedures, such as laser hair removal, skin resurfacing and Botox injections, but in a new paper published in the September issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Drs. Rohrich and Cho warn that while these procedures are frequently performed on adults with minimal side effects, performing them on adolescents should be done with extreme caution.