plastic surgery
New Breast Implant Holds Its Shape
Contact: Dr. Armen Vartany, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon 1510 South Central Avenue, Ste 620, Glendale, CA 91204-2598 (818) 500-0823 Vartany.com
Statistics on breast implants rise and fall like heaving bodices in romance novels. Last year there were 7 percent fewer breast augmentations than in 2011, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Still, with 286,000 procedures performed, augmentation remained the number one cosmetic operation, topping nose jobs, liposuction, eye-lifts, and face-lifts. The introduction this week of a long-awaited new implant may swell those augmentation numbers even more.
Twenty four years after it was designed by Texas plastic surgeon John Tebbetts, and with two decades of clinical trials involving some 4,000 patients behind it, Allergan’s Natrelle 410—already popular in Europe and Canada—has now been approved for use in the United States by the FDA.
What distinguishes the 410 is its gently sloped teardrop shape and firm filling made of highly cohesive silicone gel. If cut in half, the implant will not ooze or lose its shape, yet it's still soft to the touch.
Steven Teitelbaum, a Santa Monica plastic surgeon, has placed 410s in at least 500 patients during clinical trials. “Because it is thinner at the top and fuller at the bottom, it looks more like a real breast,” he says. “The breast looks 'shaped,' not stuffed, and the implant doesn’t produce an upper shelf or fold or ripple.” (Teitelbaum is a former consultant to Allergan—he wrote the instructions for surgeons for the 410—but he currently has no financial relationship with the company.) This is the second FDA-approved so-called gummy bear implant, following a model from Sientra that won clearance last year.
Along with the 410’s benefits come a few trade-offs, says Teitelbaum. The implant is best inserted through an incision under the breast, rather than in a less conspicuous place such as the armpit or at the edge of the nipple. In addition, the 410 incision is longer than those for saline-filled or less viscous silicone gel implants, which can be folded for insertion. Some patients with soft breast tissue may find the implants firm, but they are not so rigid that they “point to the sky" when a patient is lying on her back, Teitelbaum says.
One common misconception is that this silicone implant cannot break. That's not technically true, since ruptures have occurred on rare occasions after years of stress or as a result of damage to the implant when it is initially placed, he says. And even the best design and care can be undone if a patient doesn't allow her incision to fully heal for six weeks. In one early case, a patient suffered what is known as rotation when her implant shifted in place after two weeks. “She was feeling so good, she went water skiing,” says Teitelbaum.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete