Every August my specialty publishes its numbers, and every August the same list goes out. Liposuction is number one. Fifth year in a row.
The part that got left out is that liposuction fell 1 percent. So did most of the list, more or less. Four of the top five barely moved.
Number one is a component, not a request
“Liposuction is certainly the most common procedure in my practice, and the main reason is that it’s part of any body contouring procedure. When I perform a tummy tuck, liposuction is included in the abdomen and the lower back. When I perform an arm lift, I do liposuction first. When I do a thigh lift, I do liposuction first. When we perform many breast procedures, we’re often doing liposuction of the lateral chest, the axilla, or the upper back.”
“On top of that, procedures like the Brazilian butt lift and fat transfer involve taking fat from other areas using liposuction to transfer to the buttock, and even to the breast.”
Count every one of those as a liposuction and of course it wins. That is a counting decision, not a popularity contest.
The one number that moved
Eyelid surgery, up 19 percent, the most popular facial surgery of the year.
“It seems to be the first part of the face that patients notice as they age, especially the upper eyelid skin, which can hang and even rest on the eyelashes, giving the patient the impression of being tired and even making makeup hard to put on.”
“The lower eyelids are also quite popular, as more and more patients with fat loss can see the lower eye bags more easily, along with the tear trough deformity.”
Rank it differently and the list changes completely
“In my practice, I’ve really seen a huge increase in face procedures, specifically the deep plane face lift and deep plane neck lift, as well as the total endoscopic deep plane face lift, otherwise known as the ponytail lift.”
“The reason we’re seeing this increase exponentially is that patients are noticing signs of facial aging earlier, or they’ve been on GLP-1s and have had accelerated aging from fat loss in the face and skin sagging.”
Facelift 13 percent. Neck lift 21. Forehead lift 29. Facial fat grafting 39, the biggest jump of anything in the report. None of it in the top five.
The bit worth stealing
“The most interesting thing about a face lift procedure is that it can make you look ten to fifteen years younger. Of course, that depends on the age at which you get the procedure. If you get it at forty, you’re probably going to look like you’re in your early thirties, or even late twenties. But time keeps moving forward, so if we repeat the procedure ten years later, we take you back to that earlier stage of yourself. Now you’re in your fifties, looking like you’re in your thirties.”
“So the earlier we do the procedure, the sooner we can keep bringing you back to a younger age. That has really changed the game, because these procedures are not as invasive, we don’t have to make as big changes, and we can maintain that youthfulness.”
Wait for one big operation, or start earlier and stay ahead of it. Those are different plans, and the second one is newer than most people realise.
One caveat
These are estimates extrapolated from more than 3,000 board-certified plastic surgeons, not a census, and they count only board-certified plastic surgeons. Everything done outside that group is missing from the table. For a top five list, fine. For anything about safety, that absence is the whole story.
Consultations at Southwest Plastic Surgery in El Paso.
Call (915) 590-7900 or text 1-866-814-0038.
#StayBeautiful
Source: ASPS 2025 Procedural Statistics Report, national table. Commentary from Dr. Agullo’s 2026-09-07 dictation.
