THE INDUSTRY

Introduction

Miss Wong has serious acne problems and pigmentation disorder on her face. She is in her junior management level in a multi-national company and wishes to rise into the middle and upper management level. Her facial problems do not exude the confidence she is supposed to have. Clients and peers somehow get the notion that she is slack and unprofessional – she does not even know how to manage her own face.

Mrs Johnson is into her late 40s and her years of stress juggling career and family life have taken its toll on her, especially on her face. She has sagging cheeks, distinct crow feet and forehead wrinkles. She gets very insecure over her looks and is afraid her husband would begin looking at younger faces. Her insecurities have begun to cause a lot of frustrations, irritations and unresolved conflicts at home.

Muthu has suffered from cerebral palsy in the early stage of his life and resulted in abnormal movement of his legs. He needs support to stand and when held up, his legs are crossed like scissors. If he is allowed to grow in this condition, it would cause irreversible deformities to his bones and joints.

All the three persons above, and thousands and millions of others around the world today have similar or more acute problems and they are desperate for solutions to them. In recent years, the development of science has produced very effective products to address the concerns. Medical aesthetics is a field that unfortunately has been much neglected in the medical scope. But shouldn’t this be part of what medicine is about – to make people better, feel better and become better persons outwardly and inwardly? Non-medically trained people like the beauticians and salon operators have taken advantage of the rising trend in seeking cosmetic medicine. The industry has experienced an exponential surge in demand in the West and this has also begun to happen in certain countries in Asia.

The Booming Phenomenon

To many, the so-called vanity may be the driving force, but the booming business of non-surgical cosmetic treatments is an unstoppable phenomenon. In 2005, the Americans spent $US12.5 billion on cosmetics procedures, the majority of which were non-invasive. The number of non-surgical treatments has skyrocketed more than 700% since 1997.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery 2005 Statistics, there were nearly 11.5 million cosmetic procedures recorded in the US that year which painted a startling comparative jump since 1997 (see below):

The Report further enlightened on the top 3 Non-Surgical cosmetic procedures in 2005 compared to those in 2004 as below:

BTA (Botox) – 3,294,782 procedures (Increased 16%)

Laser Haor Removal – 1,566,909 procedures (Increased 11%)

Hyaluronic Acid (Hylaform, Restylane) – 1,194,222 (Increased 35%)

As the baby boomers generation ages and more men and women alike are looking for innovative ways to slow down the aging process, the medical aesthetics business, including the sale of devices and doctors’ fees, could easily surpass the US$20 billion mark by the end of 2006 in US alone. There has been a significant move towards minimally invasive procedures where the procedures are done quickly during lunch time, as less people are willing to sit out 3-4 weeks recovering.

Medical aesthetics start-ups are mushrooming and flooding the market with dozens of new treatments. The service offered may range from liquid face-lifts to ultrasonic cellulite smoothes, making procedures much faster and cheaper by the day and creating opportunities for drug researchers and manufacturers, clinics and medical centres. This is a very demand-driven economy and it is still very much under-penetrated.