The U.S.'s 33rd largest city has about nine plastic surgeons per 100,000 people. And according to a recent "11 Alive" local news report, area trends included a rise in brides getting procedures like lipo, boob jobs and facial tweaks before their weddings. In fact, plastic surgery was so common, one Atlanta-based doc even said it was "almost like part of the wedding package." Er � Real Housewives of Atlanta, anyone?
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No. 7: St. Louis, Mo.
With at least 40 plastic surgeons, St. Louis clocked in at about 11 plastic surgeons per 100,000 people (and that wasn't even counting the greater metro area). Add leading academic institutions like Washington University in St. Louis, and you've got a pretty solid concentration of people who are dedicated to making you look gorgeous.
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No. 6: Salt Lake City, Utah
Of course. Utah's capital and biggest, most well-known city was also ranked "America's Vainest" in Forbes.com's survey back in 2007, which also utilized ASPS data, not to mention "Fittest City in America" by "Men's Fitness". But since we found that Salt Lake City had about 24 plastic surgeons per 100,000 people, we thought it still deserved a pretty high spot in our survey.
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No. 5: Richmond, Va.
Virginia's capital contained about 12 plastic surgeons per 100,000 people and placed seventh in Men's Health's survey on most plastic surgeries. Plus, the capital of Virginia has a bevy of highly regarded medical schools and plastic surgery centers that undoubtedly boost its numbers.
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No. 4 (tie): Scottsdale and Tucson, Ariz.
By our calculations, Scottsdale had about 13 plastic surgeons per 100,000 people (more than neighboring Tucson); however, "Men's Health" ranked Tucson No. 5 in most plastic surgeries. Both cities fell into the U.S. region with the highest number of total procedures, according to the ASPS -- mostly Botox, breast and eyelid jobs. (Note: That region also included the plastic-surgery-heavy state of California.) So, why argue their worthiness? We'll call it a tie!
How plastic is your city? Recent numbers may defy your expectations � or, if you live in an area where getting Botox is as common as getting a "mocha ice blended" (with the whipped cream), they might be spot on.
According to the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), Americans spent almost $10.5 billion on cosmetic procedures, $6 billion on surgical procedures and $4.5 billion on nonsurgical procedures in 2009 -- down about 3.4 percent from 2008. We looked at detailed breakdowns of those ASAPS numbers, as well as the latest regional stats and member surgeon directories by city from the largest plastic surgery organization in the world -- the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), which is reported to represent 90 percent of board-certified plastic surgeons in the U.S., then compared them to the most recent available U.S. Census stats to calculate the number of plastic surgeons per capita in cities across America.
We then compared our results with those of several recent studies, which used criteria like the amount of plastic surgeons per capita in 2007, the amount of total surgeons, and the amount of surgeries performed -- just to shed more light on our rankings. The result was our very own list of the most "plastic" cities in the U.S. (Important to note: We expect some margin of error due to missing data. Also, we didn't focus on the type of surgery, be it reconstructive, purely cosmetic or gender-related. Oh, and we did rule out cosmetic dentists -- because in our opinion, teeth whitening doesn't count.)
