Research has shown that as many as 60 women out of the 5-10 million who have had breast implants worldwide have developed ALCL. This compares to the normal rate of around 3 women in 100 million.

ALCL develops in the scar tissue that forms around the implant and is treatable. The disease can form regardless of whether the breast implants are silicone or saline. However surgeons have warned that there is no need to panic or for existing patients to have their breast implants removed as the risk is tiny. However if any women finds that the area around her implants is swelling or she experiences pain or lumps, she should seek medical help immediately as these symptoms could be caused by ALCL.

This is not the first time that the safety of breast implants has been called into question. In 1992, the FDA imposed a plan on silicone breast implants, except as part of clinical trials, as it was feared that if the implants leaked it could cause health problems such as autoimmune diseases. However the ban was lifted in 2006 although the US manufacturers have been asked to continue monitoring patients for the next 10 years to monitor safety.

There are also plenty of other more common side effects associated with breast implants. These include pain in the area, changes in nipple and breast sensation, rupture, capsualar contracture (a shrinking of the a lining of scar tissue that forms around the implant which causes pain and breast hardness), and a migration of silicone in silicone implants. Having implants can also make it harder for technicians to read mammograms.

The most common side effect is capsular contracture with around 10 pc of women experiencing this in the first five years after their breast enlargement operation using saline implants, and around 30 pc of women using silicone.

The best advice is that although it appears that the risk of contracting ALCL after breast enhancement surgery is tiny, if you have any pain, concerns or questions, seek medical advice as soon as possible.

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The stem cell breast reconstruction idea has been around for several years and has been heralded as a fantastic treatment for women who have had to have mastecotomies due to breast cancer. However there were some concerns that the new technology could see the breast cancer ‘reactivate’ over time.

A team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh looked into the stem cell breast reconstructions and have found that the technique is safe, even in the presence of inactive tumour cells.

The stem cell breast enlargement is not just for women who have had mastectomies – women who are looking to go up a cup size can also benefit. Shifting fat around the body is not a new idea however the fat tends to be reabsorbed over time. However using stem cells, the change tends to be more permanent although it make take several months before the growth becomes apparent.

Read more about how the stem cell breast augmentation works.

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Most women are probably familiar with breast and cleavage enhancers such as push-up and padded bras, and ‘chicken fillets’. For those used to these little aids, the TLC Breast Enhancement may be a good treatment to try. TLC uses intense pulsed light (IPL) to help firm the breasts or increase their size.

No needles or incisions are made and as the treatment lasts just 30 minutes, it can be done during a lunch break. Best of all, there are no tell-tale signs that you have had the treatment so no-one should notice where you have been.

The treatment is said to mimic natural processes in the body. During puberty, oestrogens are produced by a woman’s body. The size, shape and fullness of the breasts depend on the amount of tissue the hormone formed. Then, if a woman gets pregnant, during pregnancy the body will again starts creating these hormones, causing the breasts to enlarge. The micro-beam from the treatment laser encourages oestrogen production, thereby mimicing the natural growth in puberty and pregnancy.

During a treatment session, a handpiece is moved over the breasts, emitting a micro-beam. This activates nerves within the breasts increasing blood pressure in the capillaries, promoting microcirculation, thickening connective tissue and encouraging the breast cells to enlarge. The collagen fibres should also begin to tighten meaning the breast area should start to firm up.

There will be no discernable different immediately after treatment as patients will required two treatments for around three months before a difference is seen. Patients may find that the area is slightly tingly thanks to the reactivation of the nerves, however there should be no other significant side effects.

Not everyone is suitable for the TLC IPL treatment. Women looking to increase their bust size by more than two cups will be disappointed with the results. Anyone with E cups or above will also probably not benefit from this treatment.

The ideal patient is someone who has an A to C cup and who is looking to increase their bust size by one or two cup sizes and/or tone their breast area up. Expect to pay around £1,500 for six sessions.

One word of caution is that although it is widely believed that IPL can improve the look and tone of the skin, there are no studies as yet to show that IPL can increase the bust size by any significant amount.

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Dubbed the ‘two-in-one’ operation, cosmetic surgeons first remove fat from unwanted areas such as the thighs, stomach and hips and transplant this fat into the breast area to enhance and enlarge the breasts.

The cosmetic surgery will be available in the UK for the first time early next year thanks to cosmetic surgery company the Harley Medical Group.

Fat grafting is not a new technique however it hasn’t been widely available for cosmetic surgery patients. Over the past few years, various studies have looked at the results of both UK and US patients to determine whether the results of such fat grafting operations are long-term of not. The results so far have been encouraging and thus it is hoped that the technique will become more widespread soon.

With many people still worried over the safety of breast implants, it is expected that the fat grafting cosmetic surgery operation will be extremely popular and will soon become one of the most requested forms of breast enlargement.

Initial results show that patients are able to increase the size of their breasts by up to three cup sizes in just one operation, whilst also having some of their unwanted fat removed.

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Nowadays when patients undergo breast implant cosmetic surgery, silicone gel is used for the actual implants using a more cohesive gel and a more durable shell than in earlier generations of implant. New studies have now shown that these new-generation gel implants are safer than saline filled alternatives.

Silicone breast implants have a bit of a bad reputation and at one point, the FDA put a moratorium on the use of gel filled implants for cosmetic surgery purposes. However in 2006, advances in gel filled implants meant that the FDA once again approved the use of silicone implants in breast augmentation surgery.

The big difference between silicone and saline implants is when they are filled. Saline implants come as a shell. After the plastic surgery has put them into place, the shell is filled with saline. With silicone implants, the shell is pre-filled so the cosmetic surgery just puts them into place and doesn’t need to fill the shell.

However saline implants can be inserted in four different ways – the armpit, the belly button, under the breast, or the outside of the areola. The incisions needed for saline implants are typically smaller than those made for silicone implants as the shell is initially empty.

The major difference between the two types of silicone implants are the fillings – old implants used liquid silicone whereas today’s implants tend to use cohesive gel instead. Most patients tend to opt for silicone breast implants over saline implants. However the FDA specify that to have gel filled implants, you must be at least 22 years old therefore anyone under the age of 22 who undergoes breast implant surgery is likely to have saline-filled breast implants.

The Disadvantages of Silicone Implants
Silicone implant ruptures are harder to detect than saline ruptures. This is because when the implant ruptures, the silicone gel may leak out into the breast without a visible difference as the body will not absorb the gel. With saline implants, the body will start to absorb any leaked fluid therefore the change in volume is easy to see.

Also, the size of silicone implants cannot be changed without further cosmetic surgery

The Disadvantages of Saline Implants
Saline implants tend not to look as natural as silicone implants, especially if the patient has small breasts or if the surgery is reconstructive surgery. Some women have also noted that during sport or other physical activities, saline implants can make ‘liquid’ sounds.

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About a dozen British women have already had their breasts repaired using the stem cell technology after they have had cancerous cells removed. Professor Kefah Mokbel, a consultant breast surgeon at the London Breast Institute is now planning to test the procedure on 30 healthy volunteers to evaluate the procedure.

Surgeons are excited about the prospect of this cosmetic surgery as it is believed that the stem cell technique will produce a more natural look than a breast implant using silicone implants. The breast tissue itself will also feel more natural. There are also the health implications – there are some questions over many implants as they are associated with long-term complications and may need replacing over time; there is also a chance the implants might leak and also cause scarring.

The downside of the stem cell technique is that it can only produce volume and not lift or firmness hence why patients are currently only being offered a one cup size increase.

The technique itself involves removing fat from the stomach and/or thigh and extracting the stem cells in it. These stem cells are then mixed with other fat and injected into the breast. The breast then starts to increase in size over the next few months.

In the past, plain fat has been injected into the breasts to try and increase their size however it was found that it was difficult to maintain a good blood supply to the fat. By using stem cells, new blood vessels are encouraged to grow, thus this problem is overcome.

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Macrolane can also help those who are thinking about going under the knife in order to get bigger breasts, but are unsure about their decision and would like to ‘see’ the results before they go ahead with the operation. Macrolane is only temporary therefore the results fade over time.

The injection itself contains hyaluronic acid and is a thick, dense fluid. After a local anaesthetic has been applied, a thick needle is inserted deep into the breast tissue and the filler injected. The entire procedure takes around 30 minutes with immediately noticeable results – the chest area should appear fuller and patients can expect to increase their breasts by about one cup size.

There may be some swelling and bruising present after the injections, and the breasts may feel tender for a few days after the cosmetic treatment. The injections last for around a year to 18 months therefore will need to be topped up. Currently, it costs around $2,000 per session.

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The breast enhancement pill industry is a lucrative one but there are little tests or clinical trials done on many, and there are some concerns over the potency and safety of some products. Because they are sold as ‘supplements’, in many countries, in-depth checks are not made as to their safety or side effects. Many of the popular products only have short-term effects, if any, and only limited studies tend to support their breast enlargement claims.

One of the biggest potential hazards with breast enlargement pills are their side effects, particularly if the consumer takes them alongside existing medication. It is a myth that natural or herbal supplements are harmless – in themselves, they can sometimes be quite dangerous, and when mixed with other medications, unwanted side effects can occur. Examples are black cohosh which may negatively interact with anti-cancer drugs such as tamoxifen, lessening it’s effects, or the chaste-tree berry, which can lessen the effect of contraceptive pills. Therefore it is important if you are intending to take breast enlargement pills that check with your doctor if you are on any form of medication to ensure that there are no clashes between the two – if you are at all in doubt, we would advise not taking the breast enlargement pills.

So do the pills really work? Some natural herbal ingredients are known to contain and possess oestrogen-like effects on the body so they could, in theory, help increase breast size. Oestrogen, which is used in birth control pills, can increase breast size as it causes fluid retention in the breasts making the breast look larger and fuller, therefore it is possible that oestrogen mimics can have the same effects.

If you are looking for a way to boost your breast size without going under the knife, herbal remedies may help. However caution is urged to ensure that they do not adversely affect your health. If you are looking for a permanent solution, breast enlargement pills are probably not the way forward as they tend to only have a short-term effect, if any. The only real solution is to have cosmetic surgery to increase your cup size.

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According to Mallucci, the perfect breast has a nipple that is tilted slightly upwards, and the breast should have a slightly smaller upper half than the bottom half – an example of an excellent pair of breasts is model Caprice, with Victoria Beckham being an example of a poor pair of breasts, views which he claims are also held by many of his clients.

Mr. Mallucci will be presenting his findings at the first international conference on breast enlargement which is being held in London later on this week. He will give a lecture entitled, ‘Concepts in Design for Breast Augmentation’ and hopes that his results will help inspire other breast enlargement surgeons.

“I studied a wide variety of photographs of the most popular topless models to work out the various proportions they had in common and what made those particular features attractive,” Mr Mallucci explained. “These findings allowed me to form a template around which to plan a breast augmentation, and set a standard of aesthetics.

“Obviously personal interpretation and expression has to be accounted for, but this has allowed me to develop a template that I have been using successfully for some time. The key aesthetic elements are nipple position and the proportion between the upper and lower halves of the breast. The ideal is a 45 to 55 per cent proportion – that is the nipple sits not at the half-way mark down the breast, but at about 45 per cent from the top.

“All of the models I looked at conformed to these parameters. None of them were augmented and yet they were clearly considered to have beautiful breasts, so I wanted to examine how that could be achieved in someone not so well-endowed by using an implant.

“It’s about wanting to create something as close to perfection as possible.”

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Although the study did not address the reasons behind the suicides, many believe it is because these women already have psychological problems before they go under the knife. Conditions are unlikely to improve after surgery and this may account for the higher numbers.

Some earlier studies have already shown that as many as 15% of patients who undergo cosmetic surgery have body dysmorphic disorder, a conditions where patients perceive minor physical flaws as huge flaws and can cause the patient severe distress. Patients with body dysmorphic disorder are said to have a higher rate of suicidal thoughts than the average person and these thoughts rarely improve after surgery.

The study followed 3,527 Swedish women who received implants between 1965 and 1993. Only those who had cosmetic surgery for cosmetic reasons were included in the study – women who had had implants for reasons such as breast cancer were not included.

Some of the women were tracked for as long as 29 years and scientists discovered that the suicide risk increased over time. In the first ten years after the implants, no risk was found; after the first ten years, the risk was 4.5 times higher, rising to 6 times higher after 20 years. These findings may be due to the physical improvement after surgery which cannot be sustained, therefore accounting for the increase in suicide risk as the years go by.

Researchers are keen to point out that their results may have limited applicability because cosmetic surgery is more acceptable in today’s world than if was 40 years ago. However, they have said that it reinforces the need for prospective patients to go through a psychological screening before they are accepted for cosmetic surgery.

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