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Breast Reconstruction: Tissue Expander vs. Breast Implant

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Breast cancer can be a shocking diagnosis, even for a patient who knows she’s genetically predisposed to it. Unfortunately, it’s also just the beginning of a road of difficult decisions regarding your health. Breast reconstruction is often a part of this journey, but fortunately, making the choices about your reconstructive surgery can at least offer you an optimistic opportunity to look forward to having breasts that make you feel confident once again. Still, it’s important to take these decisions seriously, so in the video below, I’ve taken a closer look at an option many breast reconstruction patients have: whether to use a tissue expander or to use a breast implant directly.

Your breast reconstruction procedure should be designed to fit your medical needs and your aesthetic vision—after all, the goal is to help you feel more comfortable in your own skin. To discuss your options for breast reconstruction or another plastic or reconstructive surgery, schedule a consultation with me, board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Franklyn Elliott. Or, to stay up-to-date on the latest cosmetic surgery news, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

The Latest Trend in Breast Augmentation: More Natural Sizes

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Trends change over time in nearly any field, and one of the easiest trends to watch is society’s changing beauty ideals. Plastic surgery, of course, is strongly affected by these cosmetic trends, and one current example of this is that more and more women want breasts of a natural-looking shape, rather than the “larger than life” implants which were popular 10-20 years ago.

Why are women requesting more natural-looking breasts?

breast augmentation atlantaIt’s difficult to pin down a specific reason for any trend, but in general, it appears that our society has come to place less value on a narrow set of “ideal” proportions and more value on the beauty that comes from simply being comfortable in one’s body, so women are feeling less of a desire for extremely large breasts. However, there are also practical reasons why so many women are opting for more subtle breast implants. Just like women with naturally large breasts, those who opt for very large implants can experience physical discomforts like pain in the shoulders, back, and neck, as well as difficulty exercising and shoulder “dents” from strained bra straps.

Does this mean fewer women are having breast augmentation?

Not necessarily. In fact, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, breast augmentations in the US have risen by nearly 50% since 2000. After all, a woman who is self-conscious about small or asymmetrical breasts still has those concerns regardless of the current beauty standards. The difference is that more of these breast augmentation patients choose to simply go up one or two cup sizes, opting for implants which are large enough to help them feel confident yet small enough that they still look proportionate to their frame.

However, we are also seeing an increase in the number of women who had these very large breast implants and who are now choosing to swap them out for smaller implants. Some women are even having their implants removed altogether. However, keep in mind that dramatically decreasing the size of your bust may give the breasts a “sagging” appearance because the skin had stretched to accommodate the previous implants, so for many of these patients, I recommend combining the implant removal/exchange with a breast lift to restore a more youthful shape.

While both society’s and your own perception of beauty may change, plastic surgery should always have the same goal – to help you feel confident, not to make someone else happy. To discuss your own breast augmentation or to learn more about changing or removing your breast implants, schedule a consultation with me, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Franklyn Elliott. Or, to stay up-to-date on the latest cosmetic surgery trends, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Ask Dr. Elliott: Can Rhinoplasty Give Me My Favorite Celebrity’s Nose?

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As a board-certified plastic surgeon, I’m constantly reminded of how unique each person’s sense of beauty is. Two patients with similar appearances can come in for consultations and request the exact opposite procedures. It all depends on their aesthetic vision and what bothers them about their appearance, and this is extremely true for rhinoplasty, or nose surgery. For this reason, it’s important for patients to come in with a specific idea of what they want to change, and many do this by bringing in pictures of celebrities or public figures with noses they like. But, many ask, can plastic surgery really “give me so-and-so’s nose”?

Can Rhinoplasty Give Me My Favorite Celebrity’s NoseIn short, the answer is no – while rhinoplasty can help the nose better complement the face, it cannot make one person’s nose look like an exact copy of someone else’s. The details of your nose are actually rather complex, from slope angles to the size and shape of the tip to the contours of the nostrils. All of this is affected by your natural skin and bone structure, so replicating another person’s nose perfectly is not realistic.

What nose surgery can do, however, is emulate the balance that the nose you like gives to the person’s face. As a prominent feature of the face, your nose plays a large role in giving your appearance desirable proportions, so the goal of rhinoplasty is to sculpt your nose to complement and bring out the beauty in your other facial features. Bringing in pictures of people whose noses you consider attractive can be a helpful way for me to understand your aesthetic goals and for us to discuss what I can do to give you a nose that makes you feel more confident.

The bottom line is that cosmetic surgery is not intended to make you look like someone else – it’s meant to make you look like an enhanced version of yourself, and to give you an appearance which adds to your day-to-day confidence, rather than subtracting from it. To discuss whether rhinoplasty or another cosmetic procedure may be right for you, schedule a plastic surgery consultation. Or, for more insights into cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

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