It may seem odd for a plastic surgeon to expand his business in a down economy, but that's exactly what Dr. Pramit Malhotra is doing in opening an office in Ann Arbor next month.

Malhotra says his existing office in Jackson, Malhotra Center for Plastic Surgery has seen a 10 percent increase in revenues over the past year. He says in a down economy, people are slow to shell out thousands of dollars for expensive plastic surgery operations, but are more willing to pay for less-expensive procedures that have faster recovery times, he says.

And it's part of what makes him optimistic enough to open the Ann Arbor office. Most of Malhotra’s patients - around 2,000 - live within 45 minutes of his current office, he says, with many of them coming from the Ann Arbor area, he says. Plus, his parents and sister live in town.

The new office, which opens Feb. 15, will be located at 2300 Washtenaw, just north of Stadium, in a building bought and renovated by Campus Realty.

“People want to be able to drive up discreetly and not pass seven people in the elevator, so I think it lends itself to that,” he says.

Malhotra, a Grand Rapids native, began his medical practice as an ear, nose and throat doctor performing facial reconstruction surgery in Minneapolis. He took further training in plastic surgery and moved back to Michigan. He lives in Dexter with his wife, a U-M Hospital System audiologist, and an Australian shepherd. In 2006, he opened the Malhotra Center for Plastic Surgery, which he describes as a “boutique” practice because he doesn’t offer soup to nuts in cosmetic enhancement.

Malhotra, 37, plies his trade in a region that is dense with cosmetic surgeons - including the University of Michigan’s plastic surgery department - one of the nation’s largest - and during a time when people are more worried about paying the mortgage than getting rid of the fat in their thighs. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reported that in 2008, the last year for which data are available, the number of cosmetic surgeries performed in the U.S. fell 9 percent from the previous year, but the number of minimally invasive procedures rose 5 percent. That’s the area Malhotra fills.

While he does perform many breast augmentation/lifts and tummy tucks, Malhotra focuses on quick-recovery procedures like mini-facelifts; liquid facelifts, in which fillers like Botox and Juvederm are injected into trouble spots, and noninvasive rhinoplasty. About 80 percent of his patients are women. Male patients come to him for rhinoplasty when they’re young, Botox when they’re approaching middle age and eyelid and neck lift surgery when they’re older, he says. “People are concerned about their jobs. They can’t take off two weeks; they want to be back in 4 to 7 days. That’s changed the way we practice,” he says.

Malhotra does not offer laser procedures for hair removal and skin rejuvenation, preferring to refer patients to practitioners who have good reputations. For

“You can’t master every procedure, so most practices focus on what they do best,” he says.

Malhotra plans to split his time between the two offices. He’ll add support staff to the Ann Arbor practice as it grows. For more invasive procedures, he has access to a surgery center in Jackson and will be using one in Novi as well.

Julie Edgar is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com