Dubai, the world's plastic surgery hub

Dr. Jason Diamond knows what it's like to be sought after. The Beverly Hills plastic surgeon -- first made famous by reality show "Dr. 90210" -- has operated on a range of A-list celebrities (though he declines to name them).

Yet even he was unprepared for the clamor that met him when he first visited Dubai in what was meant to be a one-time gig as a guest surgeon. "For that week, I literally had people waiting until 2am for a consultation. The waiting room was filled 20 people-deep all day long," he recalls.

That was in 2009. Since, Diamond has returned to the city every two to three months as part of a partnership with the American British Surgical and Medical Centre. Over the years, he has enlisted the Who's Who of Beverly Hills surgeons to join him at the practice.

"Every time I go, I don't even sit down. I'm running around from 7am until midnight. The demand is literally out the door," he says. In the last couple of years, Dubai has become a nip-and-tuck hub. Where once residents from throughout the GCC would venture to Beverly Hills, Brazil or Beirut for treatments, these days, they're staying closer to home to have work done. "In Lebanon, I'd say it's been about a 30-40% drop [in business]," says Dr. Sami Saad, the national secretary for theInternational Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) in Lebanon. "A lot of surgeons are leaving. They're moving to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Kuwait. These countries are safer and more attractive for plastic surgeons," he says.
The Botox Brigade Diamond notes that these days, "there is no paucity of plastic surgeons" in Dubai. According to the Emi rates Plastic Surgery Society, their membership has jumped from 60 in 2006 to 150 this year. In fact, there are more cosmetic surgeons per citizen in the UAE than in either Brazil or the United States -- two nations lauded for their love of the scalpel.

"The market is very saturated," notes Dr. Luiz Toledo, a plastic surgeon.