What has been called youth surgery – the need for people to try and keep their youthful looks or get back to looking that way – is on the rise.

However what is perhaps more disturbing is that many health professionals are beginning to jump on the bandwagon by offering a variety of cosmetic treatments.

While this increase in cosmetic procedures is currently an American phenomenon, no doubt it will cross the Atlantic at some point.

Florida appears also be the main centre with many allied health professionals now seeing the financial benefits of offering procedures, once the preserve of plastic surgeons and dermatologists. While dentists are offering a range of treatments from Botox to spa therapies, even ophthalmologists and gynaecologists are getting in on the act.

This has worried one cosmetic surgeon who is based in Pittsburgh. He told reporters: “It is a bit of a Wild West out there. It doesn’t mean that all med spas are bad, but it certainly behooves the consumer to do due diligence.”

But with many more people trying to stave off the ravages of time the cosmetic industry as a whole in the USA and worldwide is a huge market. In the US alone this currently stands at $10 billion.

“It’s a large target market, and it’s a market that is sensitive to aging, that doesn’t like aging, and that wants to fight it,” said Dr. Stephan Baker, a plastic surgeon and a local spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

He added: “That creates, obviously, a demand, and you see that reflected in the economic world. When demand increases, supply increases.”

But cosmetic surgeons do advise people to only go to a qualified practitioner. While some procedures may on the surface appear not to be harmful, the reality is all procedures are medical.