STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Dr. Anthony Youn is an assistant professor of surgery at the Oakland University/William Beaumont School of Medicine in Michigan. He is the author of "In Stitches," a memoir about growing up Asian-American and becoming a doctor.

(CNN) -- For the first time in six years, the number of people enhancing their breasts and plumping their buttocks is declining. The number of people lifting, injecting and lasering their faces is growing.

So who's powering this sudden growth in facial plastic surgery? Baby boomers.

Every year, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons releases its statistics about the number of plastic surgeries performed the year before. It's an accurate snapshot of the state of plastic surgery in the United States.

2012 saw a record number of people undergoing cosmetic procedures, with more than 14.6 million procedures performed in total, an increase of 5% over the year before. The number of actual surgeries performed dropped 2%, but this was more than offset by a 6% rise in minimally invasive cosmetic treatments.

Breast augmentation remained the number one cosmetic surgery, a position it's held since the FDA ended the silicone gel implant moratorium in 2006. However, in 2012, the number of women undergoing this procedure declined 7% from the year before, with just over 286,000 breast enhancements performed.

Buttocks augmentation was one of the fastest-growing procedures of the past decade, due in no small part to public fascination with the ample derrieres of celebs Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian. The number of people undergoing buttock enhancement also declined in 2012, down 36% from the year before, to just under 3,800 procedures.

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Our nation appears to be shifting its emphasis from the inflated busts and rounded behinds of Generation X and Y to the plumped cheeks and lifted necks of baby boomers. In other words, the Real Housewives are not only keeping up with the Kardashians, they're surpassing them.

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Breasts, butts out in 2012; faces in