The number of cosmetic surgical procedures rose five percent to 13.8 million in 2011 since 2010, marking the second straight year that plastic surgery procedures, both surgical and minimally-invasive, increased despite the nation’s economic difficulties, according to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons last Thursday.

"While the rate of economic recovery in the US is still uncertain, 2011 proved to be a good year for plastic surgery," said American Society of Plastic Surgeons president Malcolm Roth in a statement released last week.

Cosmetic procedures ranging from breast augmentation to facelifts have all increased since 2011.

Breast augmentation is still the most common procedure and up four percent since 2011 to 307,000 procedures, according to the plastic surgeons group annual data.

Facelifts replaced tummy tucks as the fifth most popular cosmetic operation for the first time since 2004 after nose reshaping, liposuction and eyelid surgery.

Surprisingly chin augmentation procedures, popular among men to remove the double chin effect of extra neck skin, nearly doubled in 2011 with 21,000 procedures performed, which increased by 71 percent compared to 2010.

Lip augmentation also increased significantly by 49 percent to more than 25,000 procedures performed in 2011.

Roth said the rise in surgical procedures, which rose two percent from 2010 to 1.6 operations, "reflect the demands of an aging boomer population."

Roth noted that the overall growth in the industry is driven by the six percent increase of minimally-invasive procedures like Botox injections, chemical peels, soft tissue fillers, microdermabrasion or laser hair removals.

However the number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed is still less than in 2007 when there were 1.84 million procedures, just before the recession hit in 2008, and in when compared to the number of procedures in 2000, the number of operations have declined 17 percent from 1.90 million at the start of the millennium.

"Consumer confidence was up, auto sales rose 10 percent, so it is not surprising that we would also see increased demand for plastic surgery procedures," Roth explained.