Back in '86 this was an excellent market. And it still is. It's a growing population, and the disposable income is good. Nevada has one plastic surgeon for roughly every 37,500 residents, making it second only to the District of Columbia in the ratio of plastic surgeons to population, according to the most recent figures available from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Liposuction was the most popular procedure nationally last year, the society's figures say, followed by breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, face lifts and tummy tucks.
Buttock lifts rank, coincidentally, at the bottom.
But men are increasingly being drawn to plastic surgeons' offices for laser hair removal, hair transplants and liposuction. Markman says he performs 500 to 600 of the procedures a year. And about 100 of those are for patients from other states. But owners of the Las Vegas' Estetika Institute figure patients also come here for the same reasons people like to visit. That's why they chose Las Vegas for their first posh, one-stop shop for everything from laser hair removal and liposuction to breast implants, cosmetic dermatology and dental procedures.