Local plastic surgeons have an important warning... a cheap procedure sometimes promoted to help lift sagging breasts -- might leave you with nothing but less money in your wallet. Local 12's Liz Bonis explains why.
This surgery is one of the most common cosmetic procedures requested by patients -- it is called a breast lift: "We'll remove excess skin and do some re-shaping of the breast."
Doctor Mark Mandell Brown says a typical patient will also often get breast implants.But it's not cheap. So rather than surgery -- some patients are requesting what the American Society of Plastic Surgeons refers to as a "botox breast lift." Rather than injecting botox into the face to reduce wrinkles, "Botox injected into the pectorals muscle so you stand straighter and to help the muscle relax so the breast tissue comes up."
The second theory behind this botox breast lift is-because of *where* the botox is injected right into the muscle, it sort of paralyzes them, and the back muscles then compensate, this sort of forces you to stand up straighter, gives you a little better posture, and does give the appearance of a breast lift.
"Rather than spend four or five or ten thousand dollars on a breast lift, lets do $200-$300 of botox.
Are we just throwing away the 300 dollars then? Yes.
Is there any research to support that this would be even remotely effective? No. In reality, the tissue's too heavy for this to happen."
Exercise may be a better way to improve your posture. And injections to your face --are also more practical than those elsewhere: "When we are injecting it around the eyes, this is thin skin, it's easy to place the botox directly into the muscle --and then take the chest area, and it's much harder to inject botox through the skin through the breast tissue, through the fat, then into the muscle area."
So buyer beware--sometimes surgery can save you costly results.