Esthetic surgery, the other national sport in Brazil

July 25, 2017

You fell in love with the shapes, not always 100% natural of our Brazilian friends? My Little Brasil explains to you what lies behind the market of esthetic surgery, a real social trend in Brazil!

Brazil, world leader in esthetic surgery

In 2013, Brazil became the first country in the world where inhabitants have the most recourse to esthetic surgery, exceeding for the first time the United States, with 1.5 million operations realized in Brazilian clinics. This high number of plastic interventions in Brazil (around 40,000 more than in the United States) can be explained by the flexibility concerning the payment, with credits parceled over years, and also because Brazilian surgeons are very skilled and renowned.

The most frequent interventions are the diminution or the augmentation of chest size (mammoplasty), liposuction, eyelids lifting, ears correction and rhinoplasty (nose remodeling) with more than 77,000 interventions in 2013! Among the used products, botox is really present.

In the most reputed Brazilian clinics, a mere operation can cost until 30,000 reais (or approximately 8,000 euros!). In Brazil, crisis seems to spare esthetic surgery.

Esthetic surgery, a practice fixed in Brazilian lifestyle

Modern technics allow for recover in only 3 to 5 days from an esthetic surgery operation. Procedures are easier, which make more accessible the practice. Moreover, the budget is less and less a problem in the buying decision, since most of the clinics accept to spread the payment.

In Brazil, undergoing an operation has becoming a common act, like doing sport or going to the cinema. By the way, it is not uncommon that girls ask for a chest surgery for their 15th birthday. Nevertheless, it is important to take account of the risk, even when it is negligible, for each operation.

The esthetic surgery has become commonplace in big cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, mostly because of large socio-economic and cultural differences in the country. It mainly concerns the richest population classes and the most influenced by media power and the culture americanization.

However, undergoing a physical transformation has also become a sign of wealth among poorest classes.

Younger and younger Brazilians to undergo esthetic surgery operations

The practice is not free of risk for adolescents, whose growth is not finished, and who are more and more numerous to do this kind of intervention.

If doctors estimate that an operation can be justified in some cases (ears correction or chest diminution to avoid back problems), lots of superficial operations are practiced on young people and can be dangerous... A lot of studies show that young Brazilians tend to not practice sport and see plastic surgery as a solution of facility.

The result of a plastic surgery intervention is never guaranteed , as showed the recent sentence of a Brazilian surgeon to pay high fees to a patient who had a disfigured face after a failed operation. This condemnation rekindle discussions about the lack of regulations in this field, to the extent that any surgeon can realize this kind of intervention without any degree!