Mr Tariq Ahmad - Consultant Plastic Surgeon
Mr Tariq Ahmad is a consultant plastic surgeon working in Cambridge and Peterborough. He offers a range of procedures for the face and body.
www.plasticsurgerycambridge.co.uk
Created on 05th September 2011
I have been looking at a breast reduction for many years. I am interested in the Laser Bra procedure that is popular in the States, due to the quicker recovery time and less chance of loss of sensation. Is this procedure performed in the UK?
The Laser
Bra uses a dermal skin
flap technique
to hitch the
breast to the
chest wall using laser to remove the overlying skin cover, thereby allowing the tissue to be buried inside the body.
I have been using this technique (which is not new)
for many years in appropriate cases. Although I have used skin lasers in this fashion I remain
to be convinced that they offer any significant benefit for the patient for this procedure and many colleagues are of a similar opinion.
If you happen to own a skin laser in your office you will of course wish to market it for everything; I still use skin lasers and of course they have a significant role in any cosmetic surgeon’s armamentarium but now, after years of experience, their role is clearer.
I do not think that skin
lasers ‘tighten’ the skin greatly especially in breast surgery
and there is no independent evidence of some of the benefits claimed for this technique; there are techniques to lower the possibility of loss of sensation and recovery time but in my view the use of laser is not going to affect those parameters.
The laser bra is simply a method of using a layer of the skin to support breast tissue after lifting and/or reduction; the word 'laser' is often used in marketing to make any procedure sound ultra modern and high-tech.
In general, I caution patients about any new marketed technique or branded technique until it has stood the test of time and is proven.
The underlying technique does have value and, of course, I could use this technique for you after discussion if we felt it was appropriate.
