While men still make up a minority of patients having plastic surgery and office-based cosmetic procedures, those numbers have been steadily increasing since 2000. Men are becoming more common in the plastic surgeon's office, although most still desire a good degree of discretion and privacy. The top male cosmetic procedures in my experience include liposuction, rhinoplasty, gynecomastia reduction, blepharoplasty and Botox®.

Not surprisingly, liposuction remains the most popular and commonly performed procedure in men given the many potential treatment areas in the body and that it can be performed in all ages. While women usually have liposuction in the abdomen, thighs, and buttocks, men usually have it done in the abdomen, flanks, and neck only. Even men who are fairly thin often develop fat collections at the waistline and flanks as they age. Today's liposuction techniques have been refined to produce better results with less rippling and etching procedures for those leaner males who want an easy way to the 'six-pack' abdominal look.

Rhinoplasty has long been a popular male plastic surgery procedures, particularly in teenagers and young males. It is far less commonly performed in the older male over 40 who have come to accept their nose, no matter how disproportionate it is to other facial features, and would feel very 'abnormal' if it were changed at this point in their life. Chin implants are commonly used at the time of rhinoplasty to improve overall facial balance and proportion.

Gynecomastia reduction is, in my opinion, the one male plastic surgery procedure that is on the rise. Whether it be a small protrusion of the nipple in a teenager, to a more traditional larger gynecomastia in adolescents, to the sagging and deflated appearance in the middle-aged and older male, improvement in the male chest is sought out like never before.now. Liposuction, nipple lifting and reduction, and pectoral implants are potential methods for male chest enhancement. Pectoral liposuction techniques, known as etching, helps provide good definition to the outline of the pectoral muscles which can be combined with other chest contouring procedures.

Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) in the male remains a common procedure. Men do not have eyelid surgery as early as women, often waiting until the aging of the eyelids is more severe. There still remains the senior male who only has his upper eyelids done due to visual field obstruction.

Men increasingly are joining the Botox and Lipodissolve injection therapy ranks as well as having other traditional (e.g., facelift) and more exotic forms (e.g.,body implant of the chest and calfs) of plastic surgery.