By Petti Fong
More and more men are going under the knife to give their careers a boost.
Nobody knows better than cosmetic surgeon Dr. John Dmytryshyn how important appearances are to a man’s career.
Not only do his patients tell him they’re undergoing procedures in order to enhance their professional standing, Dmytryshyn himself went through a couple of surgeries to invigorate his own looks as a kind of living advertisement for his practice.
“A lot of people are old farts like me and we’re getting saggy and baggy,” he said.
So there’s absolutely nothing wrong, Dmytryshyn said, with older men like himself undergoing a few tweaks here and there.
Even 10 years ago, Dmytryshyn said, few men walked through his doors. But now, 40 per cent of his eye lifts and nose jobs are for men. Facelifts tend to be dominated by women, who compose 90 per cent of his customers for that procedure.
The first survey of Canadian cosmetic surgeons found that the amount British Columbians spent on surgery increased 10 per cent between 2002 and 2003, to $130 million from $112 million. That number makes B.C. residents the second-highest users of cosmetic surgeries in Canada, behind people in Ontario who spent $211 million, an increase from $181 million the year before.
B.C. men alone spent nearly $19 million in 2003 on cosmetic surgery compared to $16 million in 2002, nearly a 20 percent increase.
The cost of looking our best in the West
Total expenditures for cosmetic surgical procedures In B.C.
2002: $137,512,440 (22,414 procedures)
2003: $172,992,820 (26,147 procedures)
Males
2002: $16,250,020
2003: $18,957,257
(increase of 16%)
Breast augmentation 2002:
$22,559,160 2003: $26,477,880
(increase of 17%)
Liposuction
2002: $32,855,160 2003: $37,965,720
(increase of 17%)
Male Liposuction 2002:
$4,763,998 2003: $5,505,029
(increase of 16%)
Botox
2002: $10,924,290 2003: $13,000,000
(increase of 19%)
Botox for men
2002: $1,584,022
2003: $1,880,000
(increase of 18%)
lnjectibles ( collagen for lips, bags under the eyes)
2002: $8,878,090 2003: $10,920,000
lnjectibles for men 2002: $1,287,32 2003: $1,583,400
(increase of 23%)
Source: Medicard