Seoul - Aesthetic treatment is as big a business in South Korea as some of the customers who show up hoping to lose weight without losing a drop of sweat. The market is estimated to be worth 500 billion won (S$696 million).
In fact, almost every building in Seoul's upscale Apkujong shopping district has a cosmetic surgery clinic. These offer everything from fat-dissolving jabs and skin tightening to double eyelids and the removal of hair.
TV health programmes here tout high-frequency waves to fight flab as well the wonders of laser-beam dental treatment.
In a society that places a premium on good looks, the money to be made is good but the competition is also intense.
Unlike in Singapore, where beauty salons offer treatments such as wave frequency face- lifting and needle-free mesotherapy slimming treatments, beauticians here don't.
Government regulations have nothing to do with it, but rather competition from the many medical practitioners involved in the beauty business.
'I go to a beautician for spa treatment or nail art but I entrust my looks only to a plastic surgeon,' said Miss Kim Hyun Jung, 23, an undergraduate at Seoul National University.
Strong demand and good money has driven up the number of plastic surgeons from 600 in 2000 to the current 1,400.
Mr Lee Byeon Yeung, 24, a medical school undergraduate, explains the attraction: 'A plastic surgeon in private practice can easily earn up to 10 million won a month, more than twice what government hospitals pay new doctors.'
The 1,400 figure excludes doctors with no specialist training in plastic surgery but who are providing aesthetic treatment.
In South Korea, anyone with a basic medical degree can practise plastic surgery. Many general practitioners do so after going for short courses.
'Gynaecologists, eye specialists and general practitioners have asked me to give them tips on plastic surgery,' said Dr Kim Sung Byeon. The plastic surgeon estimates that there are at least 10 other less qualified medical practitioners within a 1km radius of his clinic at Apkujong.
The competition is such that there is little difference in the fees charged by the specialist and non-specialist doctors.
A Sunday Times check in Apkujong found that on average, a liposuction operation costs about 4 million won - twice the monthly salary of an urban worker - while breast enlargement will set a patient back by about 6 million won.
The flattening of fees has clearly miffed the specialists. Dr Kim complains that botched jobs by 'unqualified' doctors has given 'legitimate plastic surgeons' a bad name.
In a typical comeback from the other camp, a gynaecologist who practises plastic surgery a few doors away from Dr Kim's clinic has this to say: 'I am a doctor who upgraded my skills and widened my expertise to include aesthetic treatment. Who is to question my qualification to treat patients?'
What keeps doctors in line is the fear of losing their licences. 'We take a stern view of medical malpractices and expect doctors to uphold high ethical standards,' said a Health Ministry spokesman.
Over the past five years, however, not one has been struck off the rolls for mistakes in cosmetic surgery. Few complaints reach that point as parties usually reach private settlements.
But badly done procedures do occur.
In one case, a Korean victim even appeared on YouTube, displaying to the world the scars on her eyelid. She had wanted double eyelids, but now she is barely able to see through her half shut left eye.
leeteejong@yahoo.com
This story was first published in thesundaytimes on Apr 20, 2008.
