When Fiona Durkin underwent a cosmetic lip and eye treatment, the results were so subtle that not even her mother noticed. 'Admittedly, her eyesight's not the best,' says Durkin with a laugh. 'But generally I found that people just kept saying "You look really well" and thought I'd been on holiday. I was relieved - I didn't want to end up with a trout pout, looking like I'd had a bad facelift.'

We've all seen the women she means: the stretched-face Brides of Wildenstein with their pinned-on smiles and beanbag lips, painstakingly moulded by a crudely wielded scalpel. There are websites devoted to the after-effects of plastic surgery gone wrong. The 21-year-old bikini-clad party girl, her slackened stomach testament to botched liposuction. Or the thin celebrity popstrel who seems to have two half grapefruits stuck unprepossessingly down the front of her Versace dress.

But Durkin, a 37-year-old public relations executive, declined to go under the knife. She is one of a growing band of aesthetically aware women who are shying away from surgery for less invasive procedures. With an increasing number of consumers put off by its unpredictable results and intrusive methods, plastic surgery is losing ground to the spiralling popularity of non-surgical procedures.

Instead of undergoing a general anaesthetic, a lengthy operation and a painful recovery process in the endless quest for beauty, women like Durkin prefer to opt for an incremental tweaking of their minor imperfections. It is the cosmetic equivalent of a pay-as-you-go mobile: just as you no longer need to sign up for a year-long contract in order to make a single phone call, so you can top up your individual beauty requirements as they arise.

As the market increases, these women can take advantage of a burgeoning range of alternatives including skin peels, laser treatment and injectible treatments. There is a dizzying array of new products on the market, each one promising to be safer than the last.

Often, these treatments are painless and can be performed in a matter of minutes by experienced practitioners. They are less expensive than full surgery and, crucially, far more subtle in their effects. 'Many of them have more gradual effects than surgery,' says Dr Nick Lowe, a consultant dermatologist at the Cranley Clinic in central London. 'They can be adjusted according to a patient's response, so you get a much more natural look.'

This was Durkin's experience; initially reticent, she did her research and found two dermatologists she trusted. 'I had a dermal filler injected to get rid of the line underneath each eye by Dr Aamer Khan; I had some Botox in my forehead and a semi-permanent lip make-up treatment with Debra Robson-Lawrence where she lined the lips and blended in the colour so that my lips look defined.'

In the UK, according to the market research company Mintel, the incidence of non-surgical procedures has more than doubled over the past year, growing to 472,000 out of a total of 577,000 cosmetic interventions in 2007. In the US, there has been a 754 per cent increase in the number of non-surgical procedures since 1997 compared to a 114 per cent rise in surgery. Last year, treatments such as Botox, microdermabrasion and laser hair removal accounted for 9.594 million cases of cosmetic enhancement. By contrast, there were 2.106 million surgical procedures performed.

'I think these kind of treatments will overtake surgery in popularity,' says Dr Lowe. 'I don't think they will ever replace it completely, but for milder problems, surgery can now be avoided. It's a safer trend for the individual if done by the right practitioner because invasive surgical procedures do have side effects; there are occasional problems with anaesthesia or other complications.'

Over the past decade, scientists have developed a non-invasive alternative to almost all popular cosmetic surgeries. Instead of a facelift, you can have wrinkles evened out with dermal fillers and pigmentation eradicated through laser treatment. Instead of a boob job, you can opt for a Macrolane injection to increase your cup size for up to a year. Instead of a cheek augmentation, you can take advantage of Sculptra, a treatment that stimulates the body's own production of collagen.

As well as having the appearance of greater safety, the rise in popularity of such procedures is due to their growing cultural acceptability. In a recent newspaper article, five out of eight national beauty editors said that they would use Botox, an injectable botulinum toxin that reduces the appearance of wrinkles. Botox has been around since the 1970s and has a proven rate of success in the hands of expert practitioners.

'It's like having your hair cut but less scary because the effects wear off,' says Nicola Moulton, the beauty director of Grazia magazine. 'People are loath to admit that they've had a facelift because it seems the ultimate vanity quest but they're far more willing to talk about these treatments.

'I definitely think that they are outgrowing surgery. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more people who have it done, the more that others will need to get it done because otherwise they'll automatically look older than their friends.'

As procedures become more accepted among peer groups and recommendations spread by word of mouth, the commercial pressure to drive down prices and increase accessibility will presumably result in even greater usage. The busy professional woman can already nip into her beautician between meetings and get a Botox jab to supplement her regular manicure, so the notion of the lunchtime boob job is not all that far-fetched.

'Ten years ago, there was nothing you could do to improve facial appearance between a face cream and a facelift,' says Dr Rajiv Grover, a consultant plastic surgeon and the general secretary of the British Association for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons. 'These treatments do what they say on the tin, whereas if you are using a pot of cream every day, whether it makes any difference is debatable.'

In the UK, a nation that prides itself on not drawing attention to oneself, the subtlety and ease of a non-surgical cosmetic procedure is attractive. 'There is still an embarrassment about making yourself look good,' says Hannah Betts, a writer and beauty editor. 'These procedures are quick, you can lie about them and they don't require much down-time for recovery.'

But, as Betts points out, the comparative effortlessness of these treatments can lead to 'a false sense of security'. Whereas plastic surgery is overseen by the General Medical Council and the Healthcare Commission, non-invasive procedures are laxly policed. The government continues to insist that the industry can self-regulate, despite a survey by the consumer watchdog Which? that found only five out of 19 investigated clinics merited a rating of 'good'. None achieved the top rating of 'excellent'.

In theory, Botox and other fillers are prescription drugs that can only be obtained by a doctor. In practice, however, they can be passed on to unqualified practitioners who have little medical experience, or bought on the internet. Anyone, whether they be a dental nurse or a lumberjack, can claim to have the required expertise after attending one of a growing number of single day 'training courses'.

Badly administered treatments often lead to temporary blemishes - earlier this year, the television presenter Kate Silverton was forced to take a fortnight off work after a botched laser skin rejuvenation treatment - but they can also have far more serious effects. American federal regulators are investigating the use of Botox after it was linked to 16 deaths and a series of cases requiring hospital treatment. Last week research on rats, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicated that traces of the potentially deadly botulinum toxin had been found in the rodents' brain stems. 'Could Botox injections spread to your brain?' ran the headlines.

Wendy Lewis, an independent cosmetic surgery and beauty consultant, and the author of Plastic Makes Perfect (Orion, £16.99), says that regulation in this area is 'not even close' to being sufficient.

'All that companies flogging a filler in Europe need is a CE mark, which proves that their product works as well as something else on the market,' she says. 'The standards are not very high and the barrier to entry for new aesthetic companies and products is way too low.'

Lewis encourages customers to research prospective procedures and clinics. She cites Restylane and Sculptra as two products that have proven clinical safety data behind them, but warns that 'dodgy fillers coming from Asia or Russia' can cause infections or scarring.

So will the latest health scares reverse the trend for the rise in lunch-hour jabs? Will the Botoxed thirtysomething let her frown lines relax? The experts think not. The range of injectables and non-invasive procedures is becoming so readily available at beauty salons that to a new generation, saying yes to the needle will be no more extreme than having a new hairdo.