PLASTIC surgery is a four decade-old business in Jamaica, starting with one specialist in the field then doubling to two a decade later in the 1970s.

Now there are six surgeons who do lucrative business from reconstructive, corrective, as well as the more popular cosmetic procedures like facelifts and breast implants.

Plastic surgeon Dr Horace Jackson demonstrates liposuction equipment at his private clinic in St Andrew.

The demand for plastic surgery, however, continues to outpace the available pool of surgeons. To meet the demand, says Dr Guyan Arscott, a veteran in the field, a formal training programme is being designed to qualify and boost the number of plastic surgeons in the island.
Their services range from $20,000 to $300,000, but some procedures range beyond $1 million for maxillo-facial surgery, depending on the complexities and degree of damage to repair.

But more and more Jamaicans are willing to spend big to nip and tuck their bodies; others want to correct abnormalities or deformities for which insurance is available, making the procedures more affordable to many.

"It now has grown to a certain extent where we now have a full plastic surgery service at the University Hospital of the West Indies, the Kingston Public Hospital and at the Cornwall Regional Hospital," said veteran plastic surgeon Dr Guyan Arscott who practises in Kingston.
"We have a full service - we have a clinic, we have a ward, operating theatre time, just like other services."

Arscott says corrective or cosmetic surgeries are infrequent in the public hospitals; those cases tend to end up in the private clinics.

JACKSON... does three liposuctions weekly, two breast implants monthly (Photo: Collin Green)

Dr Horace Jackson, who has been practising for 30 years and was one of the two plastic surgeons on the island in the 1970s, said that the art of plastic surgery has been refined over years, and was particularly enthused about the introduction last year of a new method for facelifts, called a Contour Thread Lift that, he said, was less invasive.

"All cosmetic surgery has increased because people are more aware of it through the internet and television," said Jackson.
"It is also more affordable, because people have more disposable incomes."

Arscott revealed that liposuction, a procedure that can help sculpt the body by removing unwanted fat from specific areas, is the most popular procedure done in Jamaica.
"It is utilised in many aspects of body contour surgery, even in areas where standard cosmetic procedures are, for example, a tummy tuck," he said.

Clients normally request this procedure, he said, for their arms, thighs, chins, and the back to remove 'love handles'.

Jackson says he has at least three patients doing liposuction per week.
His second most popular procedure is breast enlargements, requests for which, he said, has grown from one per month to an average of two.

In 2004, according to Arscott and Jackson, the cost of plastic surgeries, ranged from US$1,200 to US$1,500, not inclusive of the cost for hospital stay - which, at the prevailing exchange rates of just under J$62:US$1, converted to $74,000 to $93,000.

Plastic surgery procedures take at least three hours, which is longer than regular surgery. Reconstructive surgery is more expensive and takes a longer period of time because of the repetitive nature of treatment, as seen with burn patients.

Plastic surgeons, for the last 10 years, have also been working more closely with oncologists, on a new breast reconstruction procedure.
"It is a particular area where the oncological surgeon will offer the patient a skin spring mastectomy, that is, you are going to take the breast out rather than off," said Arscott.

"This will allow the plastic surgery to reconstruct a breast mound, which will look far better than those who had the breast off."
Botox injections, according to Arscott, are not very popular here.

"The principal mode of action, using Botox, is to paralyse a group of facial muscles, and I find that a number of the Jamaican population are a little bit cautious about paralysing their facial muscle," he said.

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