Breast Augmentation News Story on Fox 2 Detroit

I was recently featured on a the local Fox affiliate here in Detroit in a segment about the rising popularity of silicone gel implants. They follow one of my patients through her breast augmentation surgery with Memory Gel implants. Check it out here if you have a minute and are interested.

Thanks to Lila Lazarus and Sean Lee of Fox 2 Detroit for the nice story!

Thanks for reading.
Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon
Anthony Youn, M.D.:

Breast Augmentation is #1

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recently released their plastic surgery statistics for the year 2006. For the first time ever, breast augmentation was the top cosmetic plastic surgery performed. Last year 329,000 people underwent breast augmentation surgery, up from 291,000 the year before. Liposuction, last year's number one, drops to #3, with rhinoplasty at #2.

Why is breast augmentation #1? Could it be:

Ivanka Trump having a breast augmentation? No, that appeared to happen in December or January.

Maybe it's because of people inspired by the woman who had a breast implant save her from the shrapnel of a Hizbollah rocket? Cool story, but I doubt it.

Could it be because of Jodie Marsh? God, no.

It's likely that the increasing number of women having breast augmentation is partially due to the strong economy (in everywhere but here in Michigan) and the fact that silicone gel implants were approved by the FDA in November. These implants are so superior to the saline implants in appearance and feel that I am now finding more women opting for these implants over saline implants, which are considerably less expensive and have been the standard in North America for 14 years (although outside North America are somewhat rarely used).

Back in 1992, when the silicone gel implants were banned by the FDA for widespread use, the ASPS reported only 32,600 breast augmentations performed for the year. This has now increased over 10-fold. Why is this? I believe one major factor is the vast improvement in quality of breast augmentation surgeries today. In the past, plastic surgeons often placed smaller, older style silicone gel implants on top of the muscle, using larger scars. This often created breasts which were hard, scarred, and unrealistic-appearing (sometimes as common as 70% of the time). The newer techniques utilize shorter scars and somewhat larger implants whch are often placed below the chest muscle. This usually creates a softer, more realistic breast.

With more and more silicone gel implants being used this year, I expect the numbers of breast augmentation surgeries to increase significantly from 2006 to 2007. We may see more and more celebrities having breast augmentation surgery as well, as the surgery continues to become more and more common.

For the ASPS statistics, visit plasticsurgery.org.

To view a video of breast augmentation I performed for Fox News, click here.

Thanks for reading.
Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon
Anthony Youn, M.D.:

Celebrities with Breast Augmentation on Wikipedia

Wikipedia has a list of celebrities who've supposedly had breast augmentation. It's not a really complete list, but does appear to be pretty accurate to my eyes. For those of you not familiar with Wikipedia, it is an online encyclopedia which is written by the readers. The readers are the ones who alter the information by adding, subtracting, and correcting it. It can be a very valuable resource for certain subjects, although can be influenced by the opinions of the people writing it. Any comments on Wikipedia are appreciated, as I am not really familiar with it. They also have a list of celebrities who've had breast reduction. I didn't know that Whoopi Goldberg had a breast reduction...

Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon
Anthony Youn, M.D.:

Gel Implants Are Back

The FDA has just lifted the 14 year ban on silicone gel breast implants. The moratorium was placed on these implants after numerous women came forward with what were believed to be arthritis and other diseases from gel implants. Subsequent large scale studies have not proven any connection between silicone gel implants and these "connective tissue diseases."
What's the difference between gel implants and saline implants? A lot. Prior to today, the U.S. was the only major industrialized country to ban the use of these implants. Gel implants feel and look much more realistic than saline implants. There is no comparison between the two cosmetically.

MEDIA: If you would like to speak with me about the subject of silicone gel breast implants, feel free to email me at miplasticsurgeon@yahoo.com or call my office at 248-650-1900 and have me paged if it is after hours.

Thanks for reading.
Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon
Anthony Youn, M.D.:

The most common celebrity plastic surgeries

What is the most common plastic surgery for celebrities? The following comments are my opinion only, deduced after working as a Hollywood plastic surgeon for a time and becoming a pop culture and celebrity plastic surgery "expert." By far the most common cosmetic procedure is Botox. Botox has gotten so widespread in Hollywood nowadays that I notice when people do not have Botox more than when people do. This was most evident when I watched Tea Leoni act all flustered in that Adam Sandler clunker, "Spanglish." She had so many forehead wrinkles and crow's feet in that movie that I found it almost distracting to watch her. That many forehead wrinkles are rarely seen in beautiful Hollywood actresses today, so I applaud her for going au natural.
As far as surgery goes, the top three in my opinion are liposuction, breast augmentation, and rhinoplasty. All three of these occur much more often in celebrities than in the normal population. Breast augmentations are often obvious (hello Mariah Carey!), whereas liposuction can be difficult to determine (I've had people tell me that J. Lo has had it done numerous times), and rhinoplasties are either good (Halle Berry?) or bad (Jennifer Grey?). There are many more celebrities who've had these surgeries done than most people may realize. (I even believe that the great Julia Roberts has had her nose done!) At some point, the normal population may catch up with Hollywood celebrities in the amount of plastic surgery performed, but by then the celebrities may have gone onto bigger and more drastic ways to keep themselves young and relevant. Maybe they will have started cloning themselves by then. Just what we need, another Carrottop!
Have a great Easter! My son Daniel (3 months old) is getting baptized on Easter Sunday, so we are very excited...