Brazil now biggest consumer of cosmetic surgery

World Today

When it comes to nips and tucks, Brazil is number one, having just surpassed the United States as the biggest consumer of cosmetic surgery. One reason is Brazilian clinics offer medical procedures at affordable prices and sometimes for free. CCTV America’s Lucrecia Franco reports.

Carla Cristina Oliveira is 39 years old. She has had a nose job, reconstructive surgery after a breast cancer, breast implants and liposuction.

Oliveira is a bank clerk and had most of her surgeries done free of charge at a clinic in Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil.

“I had had three plastic surgeries and when they are successful, immediately your psyche works better, your self-esteem is higher, your quality of life improves, you become a happier person,” Oliveira said.

The philosophy behind the Ivo Pitanguy Institute which has been treating low-income patients with deformities or cosmetic issues for the last five decades is it’s both a charity and a teaching school.

Pitanguy is considered the founding father of plastic surgery and believes in the notion that rich and poor should be treated equally.

“We make no distinctions between what is aesthetic and reconstructive .We think both make the same binomium, both are together. What is very important is to see what is the suffering of the ones that come to us,” Pitanguy said.

Nearly 1.5 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in Brazil last year, 13 percent of the world’s total. Brazil has overtaken the United States as the biggest consumer of plastic surgeries.