Houston Plastic Surgery Blog

A breast lift can do wonders for the appearance of sagging breasts. While the results will last for a long time, they are not permanent. Age and gravity will prevail and your breasts will inevitably begin to droop. With time, your breasts will also lose tone and elasticity, so the procedure may need to be repeated in the future. But many patients undergo a breast lift only once in their lifetime.

The longevity of your breast lift depends on various factors, such as:

• The quality and thickness of your skin
• Your skin’s laxity
• The weight of your breast
• The breast lift technique used
• Your age (younger patients get longer-lasting results)
• Whether breast implants were used
• Pregnancy following the breast lift

In general, you can expect your mastopexy to last between 10 and 20 years. You can help increase the longevity of your procedure by:

• Wearing a supportive bra
• Not smoking or working in a smoky environment
• Staying out of the sun and tanning booths
• Eating healthy
• Controlling your weight

If you live in the Houston, Texas area and are interested in a breast lift procedure, board-certified Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Lapuerta can help you decide if this surgery is right for you. Please contact our office for details.

The effects of BOTOX® Cosmetic typically last between four and six months. The nerves controlling the movement of affected muscles work around the BOTOX® Cosmetic chemical. This means that your wrinkles will reappear.

However, once you have begun BOTOX® Cosmetic treatment, your wrinkles will be less prominent than they were before you underwent this procedure. This is because your muscles become “trained” to remain in a relaxed state where they had earlier been "trained" to remain in a contracted state.

Frequent Treatment Advantages

Once your wrinkles reappear, you will need to undergo another BOTOX® Cosmetic treatment to get them to fade again. However, many long-term BOTOX® Cosmetic users find that the more they use this injectable treatment, the longer it lasts. For example, if your first treatment at the Plastic Surgery Institute of Southeast Texas lasted four months the first time, chances are it might last weeks longer the second time, and even longer the third time.

Other Factors Influence the Longevity of Your BOTOX® Cosmetic Results

Aside from frequency of use, the longevity of your BOTOX® Cosmetic treatment will depend on:

• The injection technique
• Dilution of the injectable solution
• The size, thickness and activity of the muscles causing your wrinkling
• Frequency and duration of exercise (patients who work out vigorously five to six times a week often notice the longevity of their BOTOX® Cosmetic is lower)

If you live in the Houston, Texas area and want to hide your wrinkles without surgery, please contact highly-trained Houston Facial Cosmetic Surgeon Dr. Lapuerta for more information on BOTOX® Cosmetic treatments.

Although there were many attempts at breast augmentation using everything from wax to fat to sponges to direct injections of silicone, modern breast augmentation really begins in 1961 with the invention of the silicone breast implant. Two plastic surgeons from right here in Houston, Texas developed it while working with Dow Corning Corporation. The breast implant is a silicone envelope filled with silicone gel. The first woman received an implant in 1962. Saline implants were invented a couple of years later in France. Breast implant sales, however, remained slow until the 1980s. There was a boom in popularity and nearly 1 million implants were sold between 1980 and 1990, a majority of them being silicone implants.

FDA and Safety Standards

At this time, no safety standards were in place. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not require that silicone breast implant manufacturers demonstrate their implants were safe until 1991. Saline implant companies did not have to prove their implants were safe until 2000.

As a result of reports (and lawsuits) claiming women were getting sick after receiving silicone breast implants, the FDA issued a temporary moratorium on their sale for breast augmentation. Between 1992 and 2006, silicone implants were restricted to clinical trials. The goal was to allow the FDA to study the implants and determine whether there was a connection between them and breast cancer, connective tissue disorders, or autoimmune disorders.

Approval at Last

Silicone breast implants were approved by the FDA for the first time in November of 2006. The FDA found no evidence to suggest that silicone breast implants were connected to cancer or any systematic disorders. They found no evidence suggesting silicone breast implants posed any risk to breastfeeding infants.

In short, they found no reason to suggest that silicone breast implants posed any serious health risks, so they lifted the moratorium and allowed the general sale of silicone breast implants. However, they are continuing to register breast implant recipients for participation in a large study.

If you are considering a breast augmentation, please contact board-certified Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Lapuerta for more information or to schedule a consultation. We serve patients in the Houston, Texas area.

Selecting the right cosmetic surgeon is one of the most important choices you will make in your breast lift procedure. Your surgeon of choice will be responsible for ensuring your safety and your happiness with your breast lift. You will need to find an experienced, skilled surgeon that you can trust and whose work you are pleased with.

Board Certification

The first step in choosing a breast lift surgeon is make sure he is a certified member of an accredited board. The American Board of Plastic Surgery is the primary certifying board for breast procedures, including breast lifts. This board requires surgeons to have:

• Extensive surgical training and experience
• A proven record of exceptional patient care
• A history of successful surgical results (with a low rate of complications)

These surgeons must also seek recertification periodically, so they are up-to-date on the latest techniques and are trained to provide the highest quality of work.

Other Traits to Look For

Besides board certification, here are some other factors to look for in a breast lift surgeon:

• Someone who puts you at ease
• Proper qualifications
• Sufficient breast lift training and experience
• Continued education
• Someone who gives you the option of speaking with past breast lift patients
• Someone who will show you before and after photos

If you are looking for a breast lift surgeon in the Houston, Texas area, please consider board-certified Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Lapuerta. For more information or to schedule a meeting, please contact our cosmetic surgery practice.

BOTOX® Cosmetic is an FDA-approved injection that reduces the appearance of facial wrinkles by temporarily relaxing your muscles to create smoother, younger-looking skin.

A Common Procedure

Thousands of women and men undergo BOTOX® Cosmetic injections to regain a more youthful appearance. The treatment can treat wrinkles in your:

• Forehead
• Neck
• Between your brows
• Below your eyes
• Around the mouth

At the Plastic Surgery Institute of Southeast Texas, only board-certified Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Leo Lapuerta administers BOTOX® Cosmetic treatments. He uses a very tiny needle to inject the desired area. A skilled injector, Dr. Lapuerta’s expert technique ensures that you will most likely feel no pain during this procedure.

A Pain-Free Procedure

Some patients may experience temporary discomfort from the injection. If you are uncomfortable, the injection site can be numbed with an anesthetic cream. Dr. Lapuerta’s years of experience dealing with the complex anatomy of the face allows him to safely and effectively provide optimum and nearly pain-free results.

At our cosmetic surgery practice, we let our patients know exactly what to expect. We will talk you through the process so there are no surprises and you are relaxed before your BOTOX® Cosmetic treatment begins.

If you have wrinkles but do not want to undergo surgery, BOTOX® Cosmetic may be right for you. Serving patients in the Houston, Texas area, Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Lapuerta can explain the procedure and help you decide if it is a good fit. Please contact our office today.

As breast enhancement surgery gains popularity across the country, the more women need to know about their options when it comes to the kinds of implants they can receive. Knowing the differences between the kinds of implants, including material in the actual implant itself and the different sizes and shapes of the implants can make a significant difference in the results of your surgery. Perhaps one of, if not the most important decisions in the breast augmentation process is figuring out what kind of implant to use.

The two choices for implant fill are silicone gel and saline. Silicone gel was restricted by the FDA from 1992-2006, but now is available to all women over the age of 22 and is making a resurgence. The positives to a saline implant are that if the implant were to rupture, the liquid would just be absorbed back into your body. The incision scar has a tendency to be smaller with saline implants. The disadvantages to saline are that the implant tends to look more round and less natural, and shows ripples more clearly. On the other hand, silicone gel’s benefits include better self-support to reduce sag, a softer, more natural feel and texture, and less rippling. Silicone suffers from a risk of “silent rupture,” slightly longer scars from the insertion process, and usually a higher cost.

The two main shapes are round and teardrop. The round shape suffers from a less natural look, but there is no danger of the implant shifting and creating an odd shape. Teardrop shaped implants look more natural, but also can shift or rotate.

Choosing the right implant for you can help ensure a positive enhancement process. Leo Lapuerta, Jr. and his staff at The Plastic Surgery Institute of Southeast Texas can help you make the right decision about which kind of breast implant is best for you. Please schedule a breast implant consultation today to go over your breast implant options.

Since medicine allowed women to enhance their breasts back in the 1960's, it was recommended to massage their breasts following surgery. Within the past couple years, it is now advised to not touch the breasts at all.

The body will form a capsule around the implant once it's inserted. It takes several weeks for the capsule to form completely. Before it was thought that massaging the breast will help to keep this capsule soft and prevent capsular contracture: scar tissue building around the implant which can make the breast hard. Well research has shown that the two have no correlation what-so-ever.

With this being said, massaging the breast can actually be more harmful than helpful. When touching the breasts after surgery, you are taking a higher risk at getting an infection. We have bacteria all over our bodies and the more contact you have near the incision, the higher you are at risk for an infection. You are also taking a chance on opening the wound, not to mention that it can be painful to massage the breasts.

The breast will heal and take their shape all on their own over time. In all, after breast augmentation surgery, it is not recommended to massage the breasts.

As with any other surgery, breast augmentation requires you to be in good health prior to the operation. If you have any health problems or concerns, be sure to tell Houston plastic surgeon Dr. Lapuerta before your procedure.

Pre-Operative Instructions

You will be given specific instructions the day before your breast augmentation surgery, such as refraining from taking medications and vigorously working out. Be sure to follow these directions to ensure a healthy and successful breast augmentation.

Afterward

Following your procedure, you should expect some discomfort for the first day or two. If you experience pain or fatigue, this is normal and can be managed with medication.

Health Risks You Should Consider

There is no scientific literature that directly links breast implants to diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disease, and connective tissue disease.

But breast augmentation has some of the same risks as other plastic surgery procedures. Here are some of the short-term and long-term health risks that you should consider before deciding on a breast implant procedure, such as:

• Infection and other surgical risks
• Chronic breast pain
• Breast or nipple numbness
• Capsular contracture (when the scar tissue around your implant becomes hard or tight)
• Leakage and necrosis (skin death)
• The need for additional surgery

If you live in the Houston, Texas area and are interested in a breast augmentation procedure, please contact board-certified Houston Breast Augmentation Surgeon Dr. Lapuerta for more information or to schedule a consultation.