More people are having facelifts and breast implants in crisis-wracked Greece than in any other country in the world

In 2011, 142,394 cosmetic procedures were performed in the country

One in 79 Greeks had procedures such as liposuction and Botox injections

Surgeons are charging an average of 40 percent less for their procedures



They are a bit down in the mouth about their desperate economy, which may be why people in Greece are having more facelifts than in any other country in Europe.

In 2011, 142,394 cosmetic procedures were performed in the country of 11million people – meaning one in 79 Greeks has had procedures such as liposuction, eyelid corrections and Botox injections.



Worldwide, the Greeks ranked second only to the South Koreans in terms of the number of procedures performed. In the economic giant of Germany, only one in 200 had work done in 2011.



Plastic surgeon Athanasios Athanasiou, 42, said: ‘I believe that when people are not doing well, it is especially important to hear others say: “Wow, you look great”.

‘I always saw the economic crisis as an opportunity.’

Rise: In 2011, 142,394 cosmetic procedures were performed in the country of 11 million people

One reason why so many are opting for the beauty treatments is a fall in costs.



Surgeons are charging an average of 40 percent less for their procedures while the cost of an operating theatre has fallen from £1,800 to £600.



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Dr Athanasiou said 80 percent of his patients are Greeks.

'People are working,' he added. 'Maybe they’re earning less money, but they are working. We adjust ourselves to the market.'

Greece has cut costs drastically in other areas of medicine.

In 2009, the Greek government spent £12 billion on its health care system, while in 2012 government health care spending declined to only £8 billion.



Many hospitals have reduced their emergency room hours to only four days a week, resulting in longer waits for patients.



Owing to wage payment cuts to doctors, many now expect patients to pay their bills in cash. Likewise, experts estimate that about 35 percent of Greeks have no health insurance.



The grotesqueness of beauty treatments in a land where essential drugs are running short and hospital staff scavenge in waste bins for food scraps grates on many people.



Dr. Giorgos Vichas, a cardiologist who devotes much of his time to a clinic where the poor come when they have been turned away by the state, said: 'I know cancer patients who were refused treatment because they were unable to pay for medication, and of pregnant women who don’t know how they’ll pay the costs of delivery.

Contradiction: A woman walks past a shut down store in Athens. They might be down in the mouth about their desperate economy, but more people are having facelifts in Greece than in any other country in Europe

'We Greeks were not always saints before the crisis. To a certain extent, many of us played a role in what has happened here. Those who can afford these cosmetic procedures now are among those who exploited the old system in the first place.'



Psychiatrist Matthew Josafat, 76, said he doesn’t find the boom in cosmetic surgery surprising and that people do feel better after a facelift.



'In England, the men on my couch usually talked about their jobs,' he said, but in Greece 'the patients on my couch are more likely to talk about romance, love and Eros.



'In antiquity, women were second-class citizens. Their appearance was their currency,' says Josafat.



'The notion of the emancipated companions that women have become in the modern age hasn’t taken hold in Greece as quickly as it has in northern Europe.I fear the crisis and the lack of jobs could force women back into their old role: being attractive and getting married.”



Worldwide, the Greeks ranked second only to the South Koreans in terms of the number of procedures performed.



However, the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) estimates that with the declining costs of procedures, the Greeks will overtake the rest of the world when 2012 figures are published later this year.



Italy is presently third and the U.S. second. Britain is not in the top ten.