title: Pricing of common cosmetic surgery procedures: local economic factors trump supply and demand.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The pricing of cosmetic surgery procedures has long been thought to coincide with laws of basic economics, including the model of supply and demand. However, the highly variable prices of these procedures indicate that additional economic contributors are probable.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The authors sought to reassess the fit of cosmetic surgery costs to the model of supply and demand and to determine the driving forces behind the pricing of cosmetic surgery procedures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten plastic surgery practices were randomly selected from each of 15 US cities of various population sizes. Average prices of breast augmentation, mastopexy, abdominoplasty, blepharoplasty, and rhytidectomy in each city were compared with economic and demographic statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The average price of cosmetic surgery procedures correlated substantially with population size (r = 0.767), cost-of-living index (r = 0.784), cost to own real estate (r = 0.714), and cost to rent real estate (r = 0.695) across the 15 US cities. Cosmetic surgery pricing also was found to correlate (albeit weakly) with household income (r = 0.436) and per capita income (r = 0.576). Virtually no correlations existed between pricing and the density of plastic surgeons (r = 0.185) or the average age of residents (r = 0.076).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of this study demonstrate a correlation between costs of cosmetic surgery procedures and local economic factors. Cosmetic surgery pricing cannot be completely explained by the supply-and-demand model because no association was found between procedure cost and the density of plastic surgeons.
authors: From the Department of Plastic Surgery at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California.
authors: Clare
authors: C
authors: Richardson
authors: From the Department of Plastic Surgery at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California.
authors: Gennaya
authors: G
authors: Mattison
authors: From the Department of Plastic Surgery at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California.
authors: Adrienne
authors: A
authors: Workman
authors: From the Department of Plastic Surgery at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California.
authors: Subhas
authors: S
authors: Gupta
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013518:Surgery, Plastic / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States