The road to making oneself taller has never been smooth. The options are limited: get limb-lengthening surgery or wear platform heels. In South Korea, the world’s fastest-growing plastic surgery mecca, there may be a new way to add an inch or two: heel implants.
In February, Sallie Axl, a British DJ and plastic surgery devotee, shocked fans of Botched when she asked the show’s star surgeons—Dr. Paul Nassif and Dr. Terry Dubrow—for implants in her heels. Axl said she just wanted to be a few inches taller. But what are heel implants?
“[They’re] the worst thing you could possibly do,” according to Beverly Hills, California, plastic surgeon Dr. Dubrow. “The foot is the furthest place away from the heart, so it has the most trouble healing.” He also cautions that a silicone implant in the heel has a very high chance of rupture, since “it bears the brunt of your entire body weight.”
Dr. Wenjay Sung is a podiatrist in Arcadia, California, as well as a certified and practicing surgeon in South Korea and Japan. He notes that while some doctors will use implants in South Korea cosmetically, it is not the ethical recourse. “Implants are actually done for cushioning due to loss of fat pads. To increase height requires bone-lengthening surgeries involving [an] external fixation device.”
Injections similar to structural hyaluronic acid dermal fillers are also used, and misused, in South Korea. According to Dr. Sung, “There are silicone-equivalent injections into the heels that mimic fat, to pad the foot for fat pad atrophy.” Unfortunately, he says, these injections can be exploited for cosmetic purposes—as a quick addition to someone’s height—but this is off-label and considered to be a disreputable practice.
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After Axl’s episode aired on Botched, the DJ surprised followers by posting a photo to her social media accounts in a hospital recovery bed, with bandages around her feet and ankles. “Been a hard 24 hours, but I’m so happy. #taller #heelimplants #arthroplasty,” the DJ captioned the post.
But though Axl referenced heel implants in her post, her mention of an arthroplasty procedure suggests something much different. “Arthroplasty is a joint reconstruction procedure,” says Dr. Sung. “People do have ankle arthroplasty, but for pathology like arthritis, sprains, or bone spurs. It’s not known as a cosmetic procedure.” While prosthetic components and silicone implants are inserted in cases of joint reconstruction, it appears to be very off-label and unprincipled to proceed with this surgery for cosmetic reasons.
Most surgeons agree that of all the procedures to make you taller, only one method truly works: limb-lengthening surgery or, as some call it, “the Ilizarov method,” after Soviet orthopedic surgeon Gavriil Ilizarov, who pioneered the procedure along with an external fixator. Limb lengthening is achieved using the body’s own capacity to create new tissue and bone.
While Dr. Sung does not recommend limb lengthening for aesthetic purposes, Dr. Dror Paley, an orthopedic surgeon in West Palm Beach, Florida, says he handles more than 650 cosmetic cases of the procedure per year. Dr. Paley attributes this to advancements in science, saying, “In the past, limb lengthening led to a lot of complications—but I think with newer techniques and developments, we can now do it safely and reliably.”
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To achieve a patient’s desired results, the bone is surgically broken and pulled apart in small stages. A magnetic lengthening rod and pins are inserted into the bone, allowing the leg to have controlled growth over time. As the bones lengthen (typically between 0.5 and 1 millimeter a day for three months, or one inch per month), muscles, ligaments, tendons, and skin also respond to the new growth.
While bone lengthening is widely accepted as the most proven way to increase height, the results take time and the recovery is brutal. For instant-gratification seekers, heel implants or injections may seem like a quick and easy fix, but remember: just because a doctor is willing to do a procedure, that doesn’t mean it’s safe. Prioritize your health over your height—and just head to the shoe department if you want to grow four inches instantly.
