What Do You Know About The Semielastic Scarless Serdev Suture Breast Lift?

In order to achieve a breast lift, the material used must be strong enough to oppose the force of gravity.  A 34 B breast weighs approximately 1 lb.  Sutures by themselves do not have the strength to hold that amount of weight.  Breast lifts are based on using the skin envelope or internal suspension to create the force necessary to oppose gravity.  These techniques require incisions around the areola or incisions around the areola and in the inframammary folds.  Vertical incisions are impossible to hide and are not recommended.  There is a new technique "The Ultimate Lift" that transfers the weight to the underlying muscle.  Many patients are looking for the ideal procedure without scars but this does not exist at this time.

Best of Luck,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

I agree with my colleagues and want to thank them for some really entertaining and honest answers!  Lol

Hi there-

I wish it weren't the case, but the unfortunate fact is that there are many people offering cosmetic surgery procedures (even some with legitimate plastic surgery training) who too easily resort to ridiculous gimmicks and cute names (the quick-lift, lunchtime lipo, naturalfill, etc) to attract patients and part them from their money.

Why do patients fall for these ridiculous gimmicks? Because you, like many other women out there, really want to believe that things that sound too good to be true can be achieved. The media attention to plastic surgery would make you believe that we are making "revolutionary" advancements on nearly a weekly basis, but common sense would tell you that a weekly revolution is not possible.

This media attention, and patients' desire to have something for nothing (a breast lift without scars or surgery), combined with the increasingly unethical and immoral behavior exhibited by some surgeons who are all too willing to say or do whatever it takes to attract more patients and take their money, creates a dangerous situation...

Please, please, please be careful. If I told you that I could sell you a "magic wrinkle-erasing mirror" for $2000 and that all you had to do is stare at yourself in the mirror for 30 minutes each day and after 6 months all of your wrinkles would be gone, would you send me your money? I hope not. I hope that you would laugh and dismiss me as the snake oil salesman that I would be if I did that... But the scary thing is that someone out there would send me money and believe it was true. Only after 6 months would they figure out that what I sold them didn't work and their money was long gone.

If I still haven't convinced you, you should know that here in my hometown of Orlando some years ago, an ER doctor calling himself a "cosmetic surgeon" actually had his medical license taken away after performing a procedure very similar to the one you are seeking on a patient- leaving her with chronic and debilitating pain, as well as ridiculous looking breasts.

 

 

Bulgarian "cosmetic surgeon" Dr. Serdev is performing what amounts to "thread lifting" of not only breasts, but faces, chins, buttocks, thighs, foreheads, etc. Virtually any part of the human body that sags can be "lifted" with these elastic suture puncture-only lifts. There is a reason these so-called "lifts" are performed and "taught" predominantly by "cosmetic surgeons," not real plastic surgeons. These are the Dermatologists, General Surgeons, OB/GYN doctors, and physicians of other specialties that have little or no training in plastic surgery, and often very little true surgical training of any kind!

Innovation? Hardly!

New? No way!

Does it really work? Depends on what you mean. It certainly does make money for the practitioners, and usually does not harm patients, except in their wallets!  

Results? Minimal to NONE! (especially if you do it on someone who didn't need it in the first place)

Cost? How much are YOU willing to pay for the Emperor's clothes?

There is a reason that properly-trained (6-7 years of surgical and plastic surgical training AFTER medical school) and American Board of Plastic Surgery-certified plastic surgeons do not perform this technique and instead utilize "traditional" techniques. They aren't "traditional" at all; they are ethical, appropriate, and represent state-of-the-art procedures that really work and provide results that last. And yes, scars are needed, and there is a percentage of patients that will have nipple numbness. Everybody wants "something" for "no risk," no scars, and of course, "low cost."

Barnum and Bailey had it right when they provided sideshows that exhibited bearded ladies, "real, live memaids," and other such spectacles to take money from a gullible public. There really is a sucker (actually lots of them) in every crowd! Don't fall for this brand of snake oil! See ABPS-certified plastic surgeons and get the real deal. Best wishes!

Thanks for your question -

In our Bay Area practice we frequently perform traditional and short scar / vertical scar mastopexy (breast lift).

The challenge with this procedure for many patients is the scar and plastic surgeons have been working for decades to find ways to minimize the scar while keeping the powerful and long lasting results of traditional lift techniques.

Unfortunately, no one has nailed a scar free technique.  Suture techniques have been tried in other areas (facelift, buttock lift, etc.)  Most of these techniques have been abandoned as reliable alternatives to traditional surgical techniques.

I would doubt that a suture technique would produce a long lasting change.  In addition, the concept of suture techniques in breast lifts makes even LESS sense than these same techniques in facelifts because with many breast lift candidates you really have an excess of skin that won't change.

I hope this helps!