Britons are getting more cosmetic surgery and other treatments intended to improve their looks, with nearly a fifth more procedures carried out last year versus 2003, an industry body said on Monday.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said its members carried out 16,367 procedures in 2004, of which more than nine in 10 were on women.

The average number per surgeon rose 18 percent.

Nearly a quarter of women wanted bigger breasts while 15 percent wanted smaller ones, BAAPS said in a statement.

Fourteen percent wanted eyelids enhanced while 10 percent sought nose jobs and the same number got face and neck lifts.

Among men, nose jobs predominated ahead of eyelid surgery and liposuction.

Consultant plastic surgeon Douglas McGeorge, BAAPS president-elect, said the trend showed changing attitudes and techniques.

“Contributions to the popularity of plastic surgery include advancements in technology and procedures, and people’s growing acceptance of improving their looks,” he added. “We live in a young society.”

A spokesman for the association, which has about 150 surgeons on its books, said it was difficult to know the true scale of cosmetic work going on in Britain. “It’s very hard to say because cosmetic surgery has not been properly regulated,” he said. “There are an awful lot of people who are operating completely unregulated.”