Growth of non-invasive procedures a major boost to UAE cosmetic clinics

While the usual suspects - breast augmentation, abdominoplasty, facelifts and liposuction - still feature in the top most requested procedures for many clinics, surgeons say an increasing number of patients are seeking a more natural look with a quicker recovery time.

Dr. Luiz Toledo, consultant plastic surgeon at Medical Arts Clinic in Jumeirah. Sarah Dea/The National

DUBAI // Procedures that do not involve going under the knife are driving the growth of the UAE’s cosmetic industry as more patients request new technologies that mean “surgery” is less invasive than before.

While the usual choices – breast augmentation, abdominoplasty, facelifts and liposuction – still feature in the top most requested procedures for many clinics, surgeons said an increasing number of patients are seeking a more natural look with a quicker recovery time.

“I have noticed an exponential growth of non-surgical procedures in the past five years,” said Dr Luiz Toledo, who predicted the next trend will be a rise in regenerative plastic surgery, especially involving stem cells obtained from liposuctioned fat.

Dr Matteo Vigo, of Dubai’s American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery Hospital, agreed. “Combining fat grafting, stem cells and DNA analysis can guarantee incredible, long-lasting and natural results, omitting the need for surgery in many cases,” said Dr Vigo.

He believed plastic surgery was moving towards a minimal invasive approach in all its fields.

“The demand from the patient is to have something quick, easy, with fast recovery with minimal downtime,” he said.

Dr Maurizio Viel, of LCAS, said stem cells were the way forward in their ability to rejuvenate and heal. “We are already using mesenchymal stem cells from the fat to rejuvenate the face,” he said. “Also, we now perform surgical procedures with these stems cells.”

More patients were asking about breast augmentation to be done with their own fat and stem cells, said Dr Viel. “We note that more of our patients have a wish for a more natural look,” he said. “We prefer this natural look, too, and when we inject Botox and fillers we try to enhance the patient’s natural features, like an art form.

“Plastic surgery should enhance the assets and features of a person and not change them.”

Dr Sanjay Parashar said one of the most popular procedures at the moment was ultrasonic liposuction, or UAL (a procedure that uses high-pitched sound waves to liquefy fat in a target area, rendering the scalpel useless).

Surgeons are also seeing more diversity when it comes to the type of procedures requested, including buttock enhancements and anti-ageing procedures on hands. Dr Parashar said Dubai was the only place in the GCC to provide hair transplantation using robots to help move hair roots, usually from the back of the scalp, to the area where there is hair loss. This has meant the emirate is becoming the destination of choice for patients wanting a fix for hair loss.