( dpa ) - Plastic surgery is on the increase in Greece, with many people under the age of 21 undergoing more operations than their counterparts in other Western European countries, reports said.
According to statistics published in the Greek daily newspaper Kathimerini, Greeks undergo some 15,000 plastic surgery operations every year, mainly nose jobs, face-lifts and breast enlargement.
The numbers are considerably higher, compared to 8,114 in England, 7,680 in Denmark, 5,400 in Italy and 4,902 in Sweden.
In Greece, 24 per cent of operations are undergone by patients under the age of 21, one of the highest rates in the world for this age group, according to statistics by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).
The number of Greek men undergoing plastic surgery is also on the rise.
"Men once accounted for 15 per cent of patients - now the ratio of men to women is 30 to 70 and is increasingly balancing out," Andreas Koupas, vice president of the Hellenic Society of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (HESRAS) was quoted as saying.
The most popular operation in Greece, for both sexes, is corrective nose surgery. This is followed by face-lifts, breast enlargement, stomach tucks and liposuction for women.
After nose jobs, most Greek men prefer corrective ear surgery, wrinkle repair surgery and stomach tucks.