Researchers from New York University Medical Center used the internet to find popular plastic surgeons’ websites in the 48 contiguous United States. They analyzed the first 10 color or group practice websites identified in Google with specific attention to the first 10 images featured, presence of a male services section and which procedures the websites promoted for men.
Five states (North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and West Virginia) did not have 10 unique solo or group practice websites, so the researchers included 453 websites. Almost all of the websites included in the final analysis advertised solo practices.
Here are five notes:
1. Between 1997 and 2014, the annual number of cosmetic procedures performed in the United States increased by more than 274 percent.
2. Researchers found 4,239 images, 94.1 percent of which depicted women. Only 5 percent depicted men alone, and 0.9 percent showed a man and a woman together.
3. Only 22 percent of the websites included a male services page, and the most often featured procedures were gynecomastia reduction (58 percent), liposuction (17 percent), blepharoplasty (13 percent) and facelift (10 percent).
4. Plastic surgeons practicing in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey and Tennessee were most likely to market directly to men.
5. Fewer than one in 10 websites offered other procedures to males.
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