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Medical tourism in Brazil get a new face with booming plastic surgery treatments
The world is coming to Brazil to have its wrinklesstretched and its
tummy tucked. In 2006, 50,000 foreigners traveled to Brazilfor health
treatments, a 65 percent jump over 2004, according to the Ministryof
Tourism. The ministry estimates that half of them came for PlasticSurgeryin clinics in Rio de Janeiro,Sao Paulo and northeastern beach resorts such asFortaleza.
Thatmakes Brazil themost-popular spot for plastic surgery outside the United States.
Prospective
patients living in countrieswhere health care is expensive can jet to
Brazil and cut the price ofprocedures in half, says Osvaldo Saldanha,
president of Brazil's PlasticSurgery Society. And for a relatively low
price, patients are often treatedlike royalty in a setting far from the
prying eyes of friends and colleagues.``A lot of these clinics are very
luxurious and offer foreigners the privacythey want,'' says William
Weissman, consular chief at the U.S. consulate in Rio.Prospective
cosmetic surgery patients areincreasingly shopping for plasticsurgery
on the Internet, where agencies offer beachfront hotel stays aspart of
the package. Many patients arrive in Brazil, ready to go under theknife.
Plastic surgery is thriving in the U.S. and Brazil. More than 2
millionprocedures were done in the U.S.in 2005, up from 1.8 million in
2003, according to ASAPS. In Brazil, there were 865,000operations, up
from 621,000 in 2003, according to the Brazil Plastic SurgerySociety.
The number of procedures has been growing20 percent a year. Nearly
4,100 certified plastic surgeons operate in Brazil compared with 5,000
in the U.S., giving Brazilone plastic surgeon per43,900 people compared with one per 59,000 in the U.S.
Celebrity endorsements of cosmetic surgery have helped theindustry
grow. Donald Trump, the billionaire real estate developer, respondingto
e-mailed questions, writes that surgery improves the chances of success
in thebusiness world.
``People will remember you more readily ifyou are a beautiful woman or
a handsome man,'' he writes. ``It's just humannature.'' His ex-wife
Ivana says she's a friend of Ivo Pitanguy. ``Ivo hasestablished himself
as one of the truly pre-eminent doctors in the world,'' shesays. ``He
has helped both rich and poor alike look to their futures withbeautiful
faces.
'' Neither Donald nor Ivana Trump will confirmthey've had plastic
surgery, and thedoctor won't reveal the names of any of his patients.
Cosmetic surgery
,a privilege of the rich until the early 1980s, has become
increasinglyavailable to just about anyone with a few thousand dollars
to spend. In Brazil,the middle classes have been won over by accessible
prices and offers ofpayment on the installment plan.
Foreigners are attracted by Brazil'slow prices and its distance from
wherever home is, says Vincent Chastel, aFrench national who owns
Estetica Brasil, a Fortaleza-based plastic surgery tour
agency.``Europeans and Americans don't want their friends and coworkers
to knowthey've had a lift or a lipo,'' Chastel says. ``They can have a
little workdone during vacation and tell everyone they just had a
really relaxing time andate healthy food in Brazil.''
