320,000 cosmetic surgeries were performed in Iran during one year.
Beta Ghafari wrote in an article in the Financial Times that Iran has long been known as a hub for cosmetic surgeries, with tens of thousands of people annually seeking to achieve ideal faces under the surgeon’s knife. However, the significant increase in the number of these surgeries in recent years has made doctors concerned about its effects on patients’ health and even Iranian identity.
Babak Nikoomaram, the head of the Iranian Society of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgeons, said that the authentic Iranian face is being distorted through extensive surgeries. He added that non-harmonious Western beauty standards are being imposed on Iranians.
According to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery statistics, Iran ranked twelfth in the world in terms of the number of cosmetic surgeries performed in 2022, while it was ranked eighteenth in 2016.
Statistics from the Iranian Society of Plastic and Cosmetic Surgeons show that hundreds of thousands of Iranians follow beauty bloggers’ pages on social media, and about 6,000 accounts on Instagram and other social networks are engaged in promoting plastic surgery services.
Alireza Masbahi, a plastic surgeon and the secretary of the Iranian Rhinoplasty Association, said that many of the patients who fall for misleading advertisements and photoshopped images circulating on social media are high school students.
The rapid growth of the cosmetic surgery industry, aggressive advertising, and the increasing number of individuals who perform such procedures without the necessary expertise have raised concerns among experienced plastic surgeons. According to officials of the Iranian Society of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgeons, around 430 licensed plastic surgeons are active in Iran, but it is estimated that 2000 physicians perform such operations for patients.