In year 2009, Americans of Asian descent accounted for only 4.5% of plastic surgery performed in the United States, down from 6% the year before.

Despite the extremely high educational requirements for practicing medicine in the U.S., most American surgeons simply do not have much in-depth training or hands-on experience with the unique anatomical demands of Asian cosmetic operations.

What has emerged in a sub-specialty known as Asian cosmetic plastic surgery, though its practitioners number too few to merit recognition as a Board-certified discipline.

American surgeons emphasizing Asian plastic surgery in their practices thus come from a variety of different primary specialties including general plastic surgery, facial plastic surgery, oculoplastic surgery, otolaryngology head and neck, and maxillofacial surgery. Some offer a body-wide range of services, while others provide highly-focused care on only specific body regions.

General cosmetic surgeons may also offer such services, but most provide only what they consider to be a few "routine" procedures.

Southern California, the U.S. center of Asian cosmetic surgery

So how does a patient go about finding an American specialist? Information about the discipline can be found from links on the right, while a set of guidelines that may be helpful in evaluating a potential surgeon can be found at its own Section.