Much of the volume of the breast is provided by fat tissue. Breasts that are larger have a higher percentage of fat (compared to actual breast tissue) then do smaller breasts. In fact, fat can account for up to 90% of the breast volume. The most natural way to augment breast volume is to add fat to the breasts. This is exactly how Dr. Langdon does Natural Breast Augmentation.
Natural Breast Augmentation is a type of fat transfer surgery, in which autologous fat (from the same patient) is removed from elsewhere in the body, purified, and then placed throughout the breast. After the nearly painless introduction of local anesthesia to the breasts and to fat “donor” areas, fat is removed using a modified liposuction procedure (at a lower suction level than is used in standard liposuction). The breast augmentation is thus combined with liposuction of body areas from which fat removal is desired. The fat tissue is purified in the sterile “LipoCollector 3,” then is transferred to syringes and concentrated (removing excess anesthetic fluid) by gently spinning in a hand-powered centrifuge.
The purified, concentrated fat tissue (actually tiny clusters of fat cells) is then gently placed in small parcels throughout the recipient breast. A small cannula is placed through tiny skin incisions for this purpose. The incisions do not require stitches and are small enough that most heal with no detectable scarring. It is important to the success of the procedure that the small fat parcels are evenly distributed throughout the breast because each group of fat cells needs to be placed in a suitable micro-environment adjacent to nourishing blood vessels. Large “clumps” of fat tissue will mostly dissipate because fat cells in the center of such a clump will not be sustainable.
Natural Breast Augmentation offers several advantages over artificial breast implants. With the natural approach, only the patient’s own fat tissue is used to augment the breasts; there is no exposure to artificial implants or silicone. The potential complications of implant placement, including silicone leakage and contraction of the scar tissue capsule that forms around the implants, are avoided. (Frequently after artificial breast implants are placed, a second surgery is required to correct this “capsular contracture.”) Also avoided is the unnatural rounded shape that frequently results from breast implants. With Natural Breast Augmentation, the breasts retain their natural shape (only larger) and thus do not appear to have been operated on in any obvious way.
Other advantages of Natural Breast Augmentation include safety of the procedure (only safe, local “awake” anesthesia is used), lack of visible scars, and quick recovery (two to three days is typical). Patients also benefit from concomitant liposuction to improve the shape of “problem” areas such as the abdomen and thighs. The main drawback of Natural Breast Augmentation is that the amount of volume augmentation is limited by the capacity of the breasts to absorb and support the living grafted fat tissue. The typical “upper limit” of augmentation is one cup size per procedure. In contrast, a wide size range of artificial breast implants can be used because there is no need for engraftment of living tissue. Usually the larger the implant, the less natural-looking the result. For more information about Natural Breast Augmentation at the Langdon Center and to sec before-and-after photos of Dr. Langdon’s actual patients, visit www.langdoncenter.com.
Advantages of Natural Breast Augmentation:
• Avoids implantation of artificial materials such as silicone
• Maintains natural breast shape
• Combined with liposuction to remove fat from thighs, abdomen or flanks
• Typically results in no visible scars
• Performed entirely with safe, local (awake) anesthesia
• Provides rapid recovery (typically two or three days)
• Avoids complications of implant surgery such as capsular contracture