Prague, Dec 9 (CTK) – Some two billion Czech crowns are annually spent on plastic surgeries in the Czech Republic, the number of which has been slowly, but constantly rising, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
The number of foreigners who seek plastic surgery in the Czech Republic has decreased of late, while men seek this treatment more and more often. Some clinics say the number of their male clients has tripled of late, the paper adds.
However, women still largely prevail among the clients of plastic surgery clinics, making up 82 percent, while men only 18 percent. The most typical client is a woman aged between 31 and 50 years, Nada Tobiskova, from the biggest specialised web on plastic surgery, said.
Women most often seek eyelid operations (31 percent), followed by breast augmentation (20 percent), liposuction (10 percent), breast modelling (8 percent) and facelift (7 percent).
The most frequent treatment of men is also eyelid surgery (30 percent), followed by otoplastic (ear) surgery (16 percent), liposuction (14 percent), removal of gynecomastia or enlarged breast tissue (12 percent) and nose correction (11 percent).
Eighteen percent of all patients of Czech plastic surgery clinics are foreigners, while the highest number of them come from the neighbouring Germany, followed by Britain and Austria, MfD writes.
The number of plastic surgeries amounted to 420,000 in 2012, and it has been rising by 3 percent year, since they are no longer a taboo issue and more people can afford them financially than in the past.
Another trend is the increasing popularity of less invasive treatments with a quick effect, such as plasma therapy, botox injections and various facial fillers, MfD writes.
It says out of all medical fields, the highest number of private facilities is exactly in plastic surgery since it is “hard business.” There are some ten “big players” and several dozen small clinics on the Czech market.
There is a surplus of such clinics since it is quite easy to acquire state-of-the-art equipment on lease. However, it is more difficult to form a stable, top-quality surgical team, which takes a long time, Hubert Topinka, from the Lekarsky dum clinic, told MfD.
There are some 150 certified plastic surgeons in the Czech Republic with a population of 10.5 million, while most of them have some experience with commercial operations.
Lubomir Svoboda, from the Esthe clinic, estimates that the number of plastic surgeons per population in the Czech Republic is the highest in Europe.
The lucrative field attracts investors, but the competition is high and some small clinics are fighting for survival at any cost by decreasing prices dramatically and thereby exerting pressure on the large ones, MfD writes.
Some plastic surgery treatments, such as breast modelling and liposuction, are often offered online on discount portals, it adds.
This is also why the prices of plastic operations have more or less increased by inflation only in the past ten years, while VAT has also been imposed on them, MfD writes.
It says health insurers cover plastic operations only in exceptional cases if they can remove an apparent health risk for the patient, including psychological harm, such as breast modelling after the ablation of tumours.
The largest General Health Insurance Company (VZP) paid for 1,028 breast operations worth some three million crowns in 2013, MfD writes.
($1=24.841 crowns)
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