Each year in the U.S., more than 350,000 women go under the knife for breast augmentation, and while statistics show the majority of women are satisfied with the results, there are a number of women who are left feeling disappointed. We met up with a 28-year-old who found herself in that exact predicament.
Natasha, who did not want to reveal her last name, had implant surgery when she was 24.
“I wasn’t happy with the overall results,” she told FoxNews.com. “So I started researching. I came across a website that had all certified doctors within the Long Island area and I came across Dr. Alizadeh.”
Natasha, now 28, is referring to Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh of the Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, who performs a breast procedure called the NaturaBra Breast Lift.
This new type of mastopexy, or breast lift surgery, uses the patient’s own breast tissue to prop up the breasts by creating an internal sling.
“The idea with this concept is to use the extra skin, turn it underneath and create essentially a bra, an internal bra or brassier or a sling that’s attached to the chest wall, to the ribs, that can help keep the breasts supported,” Alizadeh said.
Alizadeh has performed the new procedure on more than 100 patients from age 26 to 52. Most of the women have had pregnancies, or gained and lost a large amount of weight.
Dr. Cynara Coomer, chief of breast surgery and director of the Comprehensive Breast Center at Staten Island University Hospital and a Fox News medical contributor, said the NaturaBra Breast Lift uses a similar technique to those already in place for other breast lift procedures.
“It’s a good option for a woman who wants to lift their breast without increasing the size of their breast, but the effects of it are going to be relatively subtle,” Coomer said.
Because the NaturaBra Breast Lift uses the patient’s own tissue and blood supply, chances of rejection of foreign material used in today’s procedures are eliminated, in addition to increasing the longevity of the results, Alizadeh said.
But Coomer said she doesn’t think other types of breast lift surgeries will be superseded by the new surgery anytime soon.
“The techniques are very similar and the scarring from this type of surgery compared to what’s traditionally done for a breast lift is the same,” Coomer said. “The external scarring is the same. So I think he’s just utilizing a slightly different technique to do the same procedure.”
Though many patients, including Natasha, often don’t wear bras following the procedure, Alizadeh said the breast lift is still surgery and should be considered for the right reasons.
“As a doctor, I need to still make sure that I’m doing the right procedure for the right patient. It’s not a fashion statement, it’s a medical procedure,” Alizadeh said.
Jene Luciani, author of “The Bra Book,” said while she can’t speak specifically about the NaturaBra Breast Lift, she feels pretty confident that the procedure will not have women burning their bras anytime soon.
“I don’t foresee any procedure changing anything dramatically,” she said. “You’re only going to have a small percentage of women who choose to go under the knife. The bra industry is never going to die out.”
Some risks of a breast lift include infections, scarring or asymmetry. About 10 percent of patients require two operations so that complications from previous surgeries can be reversed.
When asked about the longevity of the results of the NaturaBra Breast Lift, Alizadeh said that thus far, patients have seen great outcomes seven years later. But he also added that no surgery is going to reverse the effects of gravity and human characteristics.
“So we’re not holding time still and we’re certainly not stopping gravity,” Alizadeh said. “The beauty of this actually is that it’s not something fake that just sits there while the rest of your body ages. It’s aging with you because it’s your own tissue.”
Paige Malone contributed to this article.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox