Salt Lake City leads nation for vanity, Forbes says

You're so vain, Salt Lake City, you probably think a national magazine article about American cities with plastic surgery trends could not be about you.

But take another look, says an article published last month by Forbes magazine. The article, titled America's Vainest Cities, says Salt Lake City tops the nation in the percentage of plastic surgeons.

Utah's largest city has 45 plastic or reconstructive surgeons — six for every 100,000 people. New York City has four plastic surgeons per 100,000 people and Los Angeles has 4.1 per 100,000 residents. Miami claims 5.2 plastic surgeons per every 100,000 residents.

Forbes ranked the 50 U.S. cities with the highest populations, then divided the number of residents by the number of surgeons in the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, which includes about 90 percent of all plastic surgeons.

About 30 percent of all plastic surgeries nationally are reconstructive and not cosmetic, according to Forbes.

The Forbes article claims that a national increase in plastic surgery has been caused by an advent of safe and affordable options. The trend may also be spurred by television programs such as "Nip/Tuck" on FX and Fox's reality TV show "The Swan," which feature surgery procedures, according to the magazine.

Plastic surgeries have increased almost 50 percent nationally since 2000, according to the magazine.