Breast augmentation is the second most popular cosmetic surgery for women in the United States. Unfortunately I have seen a trend in breast surgery in which half of my work is now repairing surgery initially performed elsewhere. This type of surgery can be very challenging because scar tissue formation has already taken place inside the breasts and the normal anatomy of the breast can be permanently altered.
A portion of my practice has begun to evolve into a highly specialized area that deals strictly with patients that have had multiple breast surgeries yet remained unsatisfied with their breasts. I have realized that most women want breasts that look and feel like they could be their own natural breasts and not breasts that are large, heavy and unnatural. In fact, most women want what I term “Goldilocks Breasts.” These are breasts that are not too small, not too big, not too hard, not too soft, not too fake and not too real…But rather “just right.” This type of surgical result is most likely achieved through a successful first surgery and becomes increasingly more difficult to achieve after each attempted revisional surgery due to progressive scar tissue formation and altered internal breast architecture. In short, it is always easier to “get it right the first time.”
So what should a woman do if she does not get what she desired from a previous breast surgery? I would recommend seeking out a surgeon that specializes in revisional breast surgery because these types of surgery can be very complicated and making things worse is always a possibility in less experienced hands. In correctional breast surgery cases, the internal scar tissue may need to be removed, the breast may need to be reshaped and the implants may need to be exchanged. A very common question is whether saline or silicone implants are superior for revisional breast surgery. The answer quite simply depends on a given situation and the primary goals of the surgery. Each implant has its own unique benefits and drawbacks and the choice to use one over the other has to be a joint decision made between the surgeon and patient.
Approximately two years ago, I performed a very difficult revisional breast cancer surgery on the reality television show Dr. 90210. The patient’s emotional journey and phenomenal surgical results opened the floodgates and I began to receive hundreds of e-mails from breast cancer survivors all over the world that needed correction of previous reconstructive surgeries. These patients’ insurance companies had deemed them “finished” from a reconstructive stand-point because they had been given breasts even though those breasts sometimes felt strange, unusual and “alien.” Without the help of the insurance companies, many of these women cannot afford the revisional surgery they need. As e-mails filled my office from women that had won the battle against breast cancer, only to be left with breasts that they could not call their own, I decided to create a charity that gives them back what breast cancer steals: Their breasts, their femininity and their lives.
Over the past year, I founded and launched “The Healing Curve” (www.thehealingcurve.org) which is a non-profit organization designed to fund surgery for breast cancer survivors who cannot afford the revisional surgery they desperately desire. As my practice began to see more and more women in need of revisional breast cancer surgery, I began to realize that what these proud survivors simply want, and deserve, are “Goldilocks Breasts” too.
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