The cosmetic surgery business is booming and it's no longer just rich women seeking younger, slimmer and thinner bodies.

The "night of a thousand face-lifts" may have been one person's description of Liza Minnelli's star-studded wedding in March, but it's no longer just rich and famous women who are using cosmetic surgery to make themselves look younger, smoother and thinner.

More affordable price tags and safer technology has meant an increasing number of Irish people are putting on surgical gowns, lying back on the operating table and trusting that scalpels, needles and lasers will transform their lives as well as their appearance.

At the Dublin Clinic of Advanced Cosmetic Institute, the number of breast surgery operations taking place in 2001 was up 26 per cent on the previous year, while the first quarter of 2002 has seen a 14 per cent increase in the numbers requesting face-lift procedures compared to the same period last year.

It's a similar story at the Dublin centre of the Harley Medical Group, a leading cosmetic surgery group in the UK. Enquiries have leapt by 64 per cent, with the help an advertising campaign taking in Sky television and style magazines like Cosmopolitan and Image. "There was a big boom in business last year, and it's still growing," says Ms Tricia Mackenzie, manager of the Dublin centre.

From 19-year-old girls wanting bigger breasts to people up to the age of 60 using liposuction to counter weight gain, the age of candidates is "across the board". Harley Medical Group's advertising campaign targets men as well as women and Ms Mackenzie estimates that 35 per cent of their patients are male. "It's becoming more acceptable for everybody to do it," she adds.

Most first-time clients are in their 40s, according to Ms Halina Ashdown-Shiels, managing director of Advanced Cosmetic Institute, which has been operating at purpose-built clinics in Dublin, Cork and Galway since 1998. "Women and men in their 40s are unfortunately getting divorces and entering the market again, looking for a new partner," she says.

But you don't have to be all that old or all that fat to go under the knife these days. Younger women are using liposculpture as early as six months after giving birth to revert to the shape they were before pregnancy. "Ten years ago, a lot of people who have had children wouldn't go abroad on holiday but now they still want to go in a bikini," Ms Ashdown-Shiels says.

Paying to have excess fat cells removed permanently can help people escape unwanted genetic baggage and feel more confident, the Institute claims. "Some younger people are quite bulky. It's genetic," Ms Ashdown-Shiels says. "They can have liposculpture for areas they cannot budge."

The liposculpture procedure costs from €3,600 and is performed on both women and men. Around 20 per cent of Advanced Cosmetic Institute's customers are men, who tend to opt for surgery to their eyes, nose and ears as well as laser hair removal, with other procedures on offer including chest fat removal and penile enhancement.

Breast augmentation is the most popular treatment for women and costs from €4,000 at Advanced Cosmetic Institute. Face-lifts, the second most popular treatment, range from €3,200 for a mini-brow lift to just under €5,500 for a face and neck lift.

Safer surgical techniques are encouraging more people into the operating theatre, Ms Ashdown-Shiels believes. "Years ago, people who had breast augmentations had to spend two days in hospital, but now it's not such a big ordeal and there's not such of a stigma about it." But it is still an operation, she adds, and all prices mentioned above include surgical consultation, a six-week post-operative review and a three-year aftercare service. It's not just a question of having it done and forgetting about it. For example, most cosmetic surgeries will stress that careful eating and regular exercise are important for maintaining body shape after liposuction.

Surgery may ease people's insecurities about how they look, but it's not a quick fix or the result of a whim, according to Ms Mackenzie of the Harley Medical Group.

"The people who come into us are people who have thought about it for a long time," she says. "They do research on the internet and they actually watch procedures on the Discovery channel. They are willing to take out personal loans to pay for it."

Although some popular non-surgical procedures like frown-removing botox injections can be slotted into the lunch hour of a busy working week, the effects of these tend to wear off and clients return for top-up injections two to three times a year.

The attraction of these less invasive treatments has led Advanced Cosmetic Institute to expand the non-surgical side of its business in recent years, with a day-care clinic in Dublin offering procedures such as laser skin resurfacing, semi-permanent make-up, tattoo removal, thread vein removal and colonic hydrotherapy. A cellulite removal treatment called Celluloss starts at €65 per treatment.

One of the main providers of non-invasive aesthetic medicine in Ireland is Derma Laser Clinics, an Irish-owned group with clinics in Blackrock, Swords and Tallaght in Dublin. It offers treatments such as laser hair removal and injections of a synthetic substance called Restylane, which is replacing animal collagen as a way of reducing and softening lines because it has a much lower incidence of allergic reactions.

A "very, very popular" technique called photorejuvenation is used for people with broken veins or sun-damaged faces. Intense Pulse Light (IPL) technology corrects benign skin conditions by melting the collagen underneath the skin.

It costs €500 for a treatment to the whole face, with a minimum of five treatments administered over a five-month period. "There are a lot of executives who have broken veins on their face, which they feel are affecting their performance in the boardroom," says Ms Patricia Molloy, the senior nurse at Derma Laser Clinics.

"They might just want their cheeks done, which would be €300 per treatment." A single vein costs €60 per treatment.

To destroy the bacteria causing acne, the Derma Laser Clinics use a technology called Clearlight, made by a US company called Lumenis. "We treat a lot of males in their teenage years, but also people in their 30s and 40s who suffer from late onset of acne. It's not just associated with puberty any more," says Ms Molloy.

"The beauty with non-invasive procedures is that there is no downtime with them, you can go straight back to work," she continues. "But the results are slower. For somebody whose skin is saggy and has aged, there would be a stringent assessment and we might say they should go to a plastic surgeon to get the results they want."

Even the less squeamish people opting for full surgery are urged to have realistic expectations: you might not be able to have a bottom as compact as Kylie's if you're almost six foot tall, or look like Kate Moss if you're pear-shaped and near retirement age.

"We offer a free consultation so that people aren't obligated, but it also enables surgeons to say sorry, you're not suitable, or what you want is not possible," explains Ms Halina Ashdown-Shiels. But cosmetic surgery, like cosmetic dentistry, is here to stay, she says. It's no longer just a career tactic for aspiring actors and actresses and it's no longer taboo.