Commentary on: Safety of Cosmetic Procedures in Elderly and Octogenarian Patients

The elderly population in the United States is increasing. According to the US Census Bureau, in the year 2000 there were 35 million people over 65 years of age in the United States and 4.2 million over 85 years of age out of a total population of 282,160,000.1 There was an increase to 40,200,000 over 65 and 6,100,000 over 85 in 2010 with a total population of 309,330,000. It is estimated that the US population over 65 years of age will be 71,500,000 in the year 2030 with 20,900,000 over 85 and a total population of 359,402,000.The largest consumer group to have plastic surgery is still 35–50 year olds, but the fastest-growing group to undergo cosmetic procedures is older patients. The data from the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) shows that older patients, as well as other age groups, tend to opt to have more non-surgical cosmetic procedures than surgical procedures, but both the non-surgical and the surgical segments are increasing. According to the 1997 statistics, there were a total of 115,709 cosmetic procedures, both surgical and non-surgical, performed on patients older than 65, which was 5.5% of the total cosmetic procedures performed for all age groups.2 That increased in 2004 to 78,672 surgical (3.7%) and 670,935 non-surgical (6.9%) for a total of 749,607 (6.3%) of overall cosmetic procedures for all age groups.3 The progressive increase continued, as documented in the 2014 statistics: 138,612 surgical procedures (7.9%) and 967,814 non-surgical cosmetic for a total of 10.4% of all cosmetic procedures.4For the purpose of this paper, 65 years old and older is considered elderly.5 But, in today's world of good nutrition and an emphasis on physical activity, many individuals over 65 are far from the stereotype of what we consider elderly. There …