Boob Botox

I am back to finally write a long overdue blog, but it has been such a busy time in my life… Despite the “credit crunch” , aesthetic medicine has been keeping me busier than ever and what with my wife due to give birth to our second child in 3 weeks!!! I will cover both the “credit crunch” and the birth of my son in future blogs, for now lets talk about “boob botox”.

I always like to react to interesting aesthetic stories in the press , and there has been quite a lot of recent interest on the topic of injecting botox with the aim of improving the shape of the breast. Among other articles, there was an interesting piece in a recent Grazia magazine  and in addition ,  an Independent newspaper reporter contacted me just this week to comment on this topic.

Will the many varied applications of botox ever stop expanding ?! Well I hope not, as I think of botox almost like a surgeon thinks of his scalpel , but at the same time we need to always stand back an judge prudently whether we are using our tools wisely.

I do not currently use botox to treat the breasts, and I have many reservations about this treatment. Some doctors in Canada , Manhattan and now even on these shores say that by injecting the pectoralis minor muscle at the front of the chest, the rhomboid muscles at the back have nothing to pull against  and therefore the patient is able to stand up straighter by raising the shoulders , resulting in better posture and therefore with “uplifted” breasts. Sounds great doesn’t it?

Well no I don’t think so, and here are a few reasons why. Firstly , a very large amount of botox would have to be injected to achieve these results. According to some reports this could cost the patient as much as £1000-£2000 per treatment, and don’t forget it will only last 3-4 months. Secondly , from what I can gather, the patient does not get a change in the shape of the breast, or even an actual breast uplift, but just a posture change, and this means that only a small mumber of women with smaller breasts would benefit from a lift. Thirdly , and probably most importantly the pectoralis minor muscle, which is the muscle being injected is a very important muscle indeed . By weakening it, the patient will not be able to do many important things such as rolling over, doing push-ups or skiing!

I welcome new additions to the aesthetic medicine repertoir , and I shall follow the development (or not) of “boob botox” with great interest, but until there are proper peer reviewed studies, proving that the benefits of this procedure outweigh the side-effects and cost, I recommend to any of my readers to steer well clear.

See you soon!