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Craze for cosmetic treatments results in boom of clinics opening in Malaga and on Costa del Sol
Health and beauty

Craze for cosmetic treatments results in boom of clinics opening in Malaga and on Costa del Sol

More men, now making up 30% of the patients, are turning to these treatments and a willingness to openly discuss procedures are behind a huge increase in the number of cosmetic clinics in the province

Iván Gelibter

Malaga

Wednesday, 6 March 2024, 12:50

Malaga now has more than double the number of cosmetic clinics than the province had back in 2015, new data shows.

Eight years ago, there were 30 aesthetic medicine clinics on the Costa del Sol and in Malaga province. According to the Junta's regional Ministry of Health, this number shot up to 74 in 2023, a 150% increase.

Faced with the evident increase, Medesma, an association of cosmetic doctors in Malaga, was founded a few years ago in the province. Its training member and spokesman Dr. Javier Romero said the increase in clinics is "exponential". He attributed the rise to two key elements: more men opting for cosmetic surgery and the elimination of a societal taboo and people's growing interest to "improve" their physical appearance.

30% of patients are men

"Until recently patients were women over 40, now we have a lot of 20-year-olds," Romero said. He added about 70% of patients are women and 30% are men. "Thanks to the increase in the number of Master's degrees, there are a lot of new aesthetic doctors coming out every year. That facilitates the growth of the business. When we started there were five of us and we all knew each other," he said.

Romero urged patients to check their clinic has a NICA accreditation, and that the doctors are accredited. An emerging issue is dental practitioners who have started to perform cosmetic procedures that aren't oral related. "As a dental clinic they have the right to add an aesthetic department, get the NICA accreditation and hire an aesthetic doctor. There is no problem there. The issue is that dentists claim that they are the professionals of the mouth, and that they could also do lip fillings and the like. We at SEME (national association of aesthetic doctors) have discussed this and for the moment we don't agree," Romero said.

Treatments

SEME presented a new report last week in Malaga, in which it pointed out that half of the Spanish population has had cosmetic treatment. The figure is so high as it also includes nutritional treatments.

The report pointed out that the age group receiving cosmetic treatment is widening: younger patients (14-20%), 16-25 year olds (14-20%) and people over 45 (28-38%) are on the rise (14-20%). In terms of social class, 69% correspond to the "upper or upper-middle class".

According to this report, the treatments most associated with aesthetic medicine are nutritional counselling (50%), followed by botox (39%) and other injectables (38%). As for the most popular aesthetic medicine treatments: IPL, hyaluronic acid fillers, mesotherapy, PRP and toxin.

Romero said the most common procedure among women is botox, while in men it is also botox, but to treat excessive sweating. "Treatments in general have been dropping in price, and that also helps more people to have them done. Some 25 years ago, botox cost 700 euros. Today it is between 300 and 400," he added.

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surinenglish Craze for cosmetic treatments results in boom of clinics opening in Malaga and on Costa del Sol