Nose Jobs Most Popular Plastic Surgery in Korea

Liposuction is the most popular cosmetic surgery in the world, according to the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

ISAPS looked at 14.7 million procedures carried out in 2011. The U.S. had the most plastic surgeries with 3.11 million, followed by 1.45 million in Brazil and 950,000 in Japan.

Different types were popular in different countries. Breast enlargement and hip augmentation were popular in the U.S. and Brazil, while rhinoplasty led in Korea, China, Japan and other countries.

Westerners are typically more interested in improving their body shape while Asians showed more interest in changing their facial features.

Plastic surgeon Seo Il-beom said, "In Western countries like the U.S. and Brazil, many women tend to have larger breasts, so more women with smaller ones feel unhappy about their own and have plastic surgery. There are also a lot more cases of liposuction because obesity is more prevalent there."

Seo added that East Asians have smaller and less distinctive facial features than Caucasians, so they prefer to facial surgery to make their eyes and nose more distinctive and the face line slimmer.

Proportionally, Korea was way ahead of the U.S. with the most number of plastic surgery cases per 1,000 people, followed by Greece and Italy. Next came the U.S., Colombia, Taiwan, Japan and Brazil.