Hello, I’m Dr. Alexander Sinclair, your board-certified plastic surgeon. I was recently reading this interesting article in Wired Magazine and Today, I would like to talk about some exciting developments on the horizon of plastic surgery.  You might not know this, but plastic surgeons have been on the forefront of many medical changes.  As a matter of fact, the specialty is all about change.  Changing people and furthering new developments.

That’s sort of the piece of property that plastic surgeons own.  In the 50’s, plastic surgeons were the first doctors to do kidney transplants.  Right now, plastic surgery teams are working on stem cell research.  What they’re finding is that stem cells occur in fatty tissue.  Much more frequently that had been thought.

As a matter of fact, you may find the stem cell in every 200 cells in your adipose or fat cell area compared to one in a few thousand in blood or bone marrow.  That means that that is a really right place to find stem cells.

But what does a stem cell do and what is that?  We hear about it all the time.  Think about this.  You have over 200 different types of cell types in your body.  For example, you have bat cells and you have bone cells and you have muscle cells and kidney cells.  A stem cell is the type of cell that when properly stimulated can develop into any of those cell lines.  That’s pretty incredible because if you think about it, one of the real problems with aging or disease or trauma is the loss of certain cells.

For example, if you have a heart attack, you’re going to lose heart cells.  Well, there’s no way the body can make new heart cells unless a used to unlock that secret process and stem cells can do that.  Now, the applicability here in the plastic surgery world, one of the early applicabilities is for breast reconstruction and even breast augmentation.  Because if we can take fat cells and that is the stem cell and then stimulate that stem cell and program it to replicate and build a breast, we’ll be able to build breasts with your own tissue.

That’s an exciting concept and it’s being done.  And it’s not just being done in the labs, but it’s being done in experimental settings around the world right now in Europe, Asia, and in the United States.  There are programs underway to reconstruct breasts using a person’s own fat by stimulating stem cells.  We’re not ready to do this on an everyday basis for breast augmentations, but I would say, within my lifetime it will happen.

So stay tuned.  I want to do an update on this because this area is changing rapidly and there are many applications of this stem cell therapy for plastic surgery.  I’m Dr. Alexander Sinclair, your board-certified plastic surgeon.

To Your Beauty,
Dr. Alexander Sinclair

For more information please visit:
Beverly Hills Breast Augmentation

P.S.
If you wish to read the article that led me to write this for you you can visit Wired Magazine

Posted via email from beverlyhillsplasticsurgery’s posterous

Some forms of plastic surgery for people this young are more understandable than others, such as those that fix a very noticeable defect or problem like the removal of a birthmark. But procedures simply to change the appearance, like breast implants or rhinoplasty require serious consideration by both the parents and the doctors involved. The teenage body and features may not be fully formed, making cosmetic surgery riskier than in someone who has stopped growing. Many teenagers don’t stop to think about the surgical aspects like any drawbacks, complications, and healing time involved.

Parents of teenagers who want some type of plastic surgery to improve their looks should look carefully into their child’s motivation. If your son or daughter feels that he or she is flawed or imperfect, this may be a sign of emotional issues that go beyond what that child sees when looking in a mirror or why they see the imperfections.

Until Next Time,

Alexander Sinclair M.D.

Breast-feeding is known to possess nutritional and immunologic properties superior to those found in infant formulas. Breast-feeding seems to be particularly protective against some of the common childhood conditions such as eczema, otitis media, and iron-deficiency anemia, and is beneficial to neurodevelopment in premature infants. Also, there are substantial health benefits of breast-feeding for the mother and possibly for the whole family. Millions of silicone breast implants have been placed for either reconstructive or cosmetic surgeries. Many of the women with breast implants will become pregnant after their surgery.  Women with silicone implants may be apprehensive and confused over whether it is safe to breast feed.

Mothers with breast implants may decide not to breast feed their infants because of the mothers silicone getting into their breast milk.  A study by Dr. John Semple published in The Journal of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons should help them in their decision making. The research shows that when you compare women with breast implants to women who do not have breast implants there is no difference in silicon levels in the breast milk or in blood. Silicon levels in store bought cow’s milk was 15 times higher than in the milk of women with breast implants. Silicon levels in many commercially made infant nutrition formulas was often 80 times higher than the levels in the milk of women with breast implants!

Of course the choice is up to the woman, but this information that women with silicone breast implants have less silicon in their milk than in infant formulas coupled with the health, emotional and developmental benefits of breast feeding makes the choice easier.