Last month I went to find out the chin augmentation cost in a local clinic as it was something which I have been considering. I didn’t actually research online first, I just wanted to get a ballpark figure so that I would have an understanding as to exactly what kind of cost I was looking at. When the guy behind the counter told me the price of $2,300 I was absolutely blown away. I have not had much cosmetic surgery in my life but I always had this notion that it was super expensive and that I would have to make some serious savings before I could think about having anything done.
When I got home I was chatting to a friend about this, who felt the same way that I did about the costs of cosmetic surgery. We were playing a game where we would guess how much a particular procedure cost, and then we would check online to see if we were right or wrong. Almost every single time we guessed that the price would be way higher than it actually was. We began to discuss then, why was it that cosmetic surgery had gotten cheaper, what changed?
Inflation
One very simply explanation, or factor at least, as to why this has gone down in price is based on the fact that the price of cosmetic surgery has not risen at the same rate of inflation. In the USA inflation has gone up in the last 20 years by 54%, conversely however, the increase in the cost of cosmetic procedures during that very same time frame, has only gone up by 32% as a weighted average. This difference of course has certainly played a part in the overall reduction of cosmetic surgery costs. This is not the only reason as to why we are seeing lower costs, but it certainly plays a part.
Professor Mark J. Perry from the American Enterprise Institute compiled a report on this, and he stated the following on the figures:
“The competitive market for cosmetic procedures operates differently than the traditional market for health care in important and significant ways. Cosmetic procedures, unlike most medical services, are not usually covered by insurance. Patients typically paying 100 percent out-of-pocket for elective cosmetic procedures are cost-conscious and have strong incentives to shop around and compare prices at the dozens of competing providers in any large city”
Ubiquity
If we take 20 years ago as the original marker, back then if you wanted even simple cosmetic procedures done, you would have to travel pretty far and find yourself a high end clinic to have it done. Over the years however there is a lot which has changed regarding cosmetic surgery and attitudes towards it, and over time that greatly increased the demand. Naturally where there is demand for something, it isn’t long before the supply is increased. It is for this reason that in any major city or even large town across the country, you will find a clinic where you can go and get some cosmetic procedures done. As with anything, the more widely available that something becomes, and the less exclusive it is, the price in turn generally takes a tumble. This has certainly been the case with regards to the falling price of cosmetic surgery treatments.
Competition
Something else which this level of ubiquity has brought with it is competition between certain clinics which has lead to promotions and cost cutting in order to bring more people in. Cosmetic surgeons these days are not able to charge the mega mark-ups that they were once able to, it just wouldn’t be sustainable. The only cosmetic surgeons and clinics which are able to charge insane prices are those who are in a pricy post code, Beverley Hills for example, and those who have an impeccable reputation. You may find that those who have operated on celebrities for example, have a chance to charge high prices in the future as a result of the clients who they have had in the past. In most cases however, the cost between 2 clinics may be poles apart, but the procedure and the equipment used is going to be identical. The competition for patients is certainly a reason why cosmetic surgeons are charging lower prices than ever before.
Speed and Precision
As the desire for these procedures increased, the tech world looked into how it could create faster and better equipment which could be used in cosmetic surgery. We have to remember that cosmetic surgery is not always just for vanity purposes, there are many who require such work after they have been in accidents or who have severe burns from being in a fire. For this reason the research into the advancement of materials and tools for procedure was doubly beneficial. In terms of the cost of cosmetic surgery this has consequentially driven the price down because surgeons can see more patients in the same period of time thanks to the speeding up of the operations. A perfect example of this would be the breast augmentation, which used to be a far grander scale operation than it is today. These days the patient is in and out in the same day and recover takes much less time. This has come about as a result of advanced and improved techniques which we are seeing being used in the operating room.
All of these factors together is what has resulted in the great reduction in price for almost every cosmetic procedure out there. Something which is in fact worrying many is that the costs are too cheap and that more people will go to have their bodies changed simply based on the low cost, in the past that high price certainly put many off having body altering work done, but that is now very much a thing of the past, as we can clearly see here.
