SMILE

Lip Implants Shot Up in 2015

Lip augmentation is now the second-fastest growing facial surgery in the U.S.

In 2015, America got a little more beautiful-- or at least it tried.

Lip augmentation surgeries, which entail the insertion of silicone implants to puff up one's lips, reached their highest numbers ever in the U.S. last year. In all, Americans underwent almost 27,500 of the procedures in 12 months, meaning on average someone got lip implants every 19 minutes. That marks a 48 percent increase since 2000, making it the second-fastest growing facial surgery in the country.

Some plastic surgeons say sites like Instagram may have helped make the procedure so popular.

"We live in the age of the selfie, and because we see images of ourselves almost constantly on social media, we're much more aware of how our lips look," said Dr. David H. Song, president of the American Society of Plastic surgeons, in a press release.

Another surgeon, Dr. Robert Houser, says the implants have gained popularity because they’ve become so realistic.

“There’s been a lot of bad lips done in the past, and there’s a stigma that was associated with lip augmentation over the last 20 to 30 years,” Houser said. “We’re looking for more subtle, more soft, natural results than we had in the past.”

So there you have it. When Americans want their lips to look natural, they have surgery.

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Nathan Place

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