Vacuum bra- alternative to implants

[tastyt]

Ooh ooh I want one! I read about this a few years ago, finally it's available! Big boobies without the silicone!

Novel device gives bust line a boost

By Julia Sommerfeld

MSNBC

NEW YORK, May 8 — If you suffer from cleavage envy but are averse to scalpels and sacks of saline or silicone, there’s a new option: Hoover-ing your way to a bigger bust with a battery-powered wearable vacuum bra. Physicians are lining up for the chance to offer the Brava Breast Enhancement and Shaping System to their less-endowed female patients.

IT SOUNDS like a crude joke and looks like a torture device (think Madonna cone bra), but this isn’t some contraption hawked on a late-night infomercial — Brava’s medical advisory board reads like a who’s who list of reputable plastic surgeons.

Physicians gathered here at this week’s meeting of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) were lining up at the Brava booth to learn how to get the product into their practices. But it’s no quick fix: The device must be worn at least 10 continuous hours a day for 10 consecutive weeks, and some experts are doubtful many women are willing or able to make such a time-consuming commitment.

But 37-year-old Marie, who wore it while she slept every night for 12 weeks as part of a clinical trial, says it was well worth it. Now, five months after she stopped wearing it, the San Francisco administrative assistant has maintained a cup-size gain — she went from size AA to a full A bordering on small B.

She says the difference is modest but that one cup size is enough for her. “I just wanted to have a woman’s look instead of a little girl,” she said. “This is great for women who aren’t looking for something outrageous like Pamela Lee.”

The bra-like device consists of two hard plastic domes ringed with silicone that fit over the breasts, covered by what looks like a sports bra. With the flick of a switch on a hand-held power box, the air is sucked out of the domes, creating a vacuum that Brava LLC, the product’s manufacturer, says induces the breast tissue to grow approximately one cup size.

Because of the 10-hour requirement, most women who’ve used it in studies have opted to sleep in it, which requires sleeping on one’s back — not the most comfortable position for most people.

The system, which costs about $2,000 to $2,500 (about one-half to two-thirds the cost of traditional breast implants), will be available through select plastic surgeons, gynecologists and cosmetic dermatologists trained by the company to use the system, which has been approved for sale by the FDA as a nonregulated medical device.

The product is now being rolled out and within the past few weeks, about 100 doctors across the country have been trained to use the device. Dr. Roger Khouri, the product’s inventor and the medical director of Brava, says nearly 10,000 doctors have already inquired about the device.

The company says the product was designed for small-breasted women.

“It’s not for women who already have a C-cup,” Khouri said. “It’s for A’s and B’s who don’t want surgery but want to be a little bigger.”

STUDY DETAILS

In an early study, Miami plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Baker, who has no financial interest in the company, tested the device on 17 women, only 12 of whom completed the trial. When worn as directed, breast size increased about 100 percent, partly due to swelling. The swelling went down in a few weeks, but the breasts retained a 55 percent increase that has so far been maintained for two years.

Brava was put to the test using strict guidelines and multiple criteria, according to Baker. To assess changes in breast size, he used bead-displacement and chest circumference measurements and plaster torso moulds. Magnetic resonance imaging scans confirmed that the increased volume was in fact due to growth of breast tissue.

But what most patients are really interested in are the before and after photographs — which reveal noticeable but not dramatic results, patients and doctors agree.

Baker says he was very skeptical about the product at first but was impressed with the results. “When they wear it like they’re supposed to, everybody gets an increase.” And all the women in his study reported being satisfied with their results: “A girl who is an A and goes to B is very happy,” he said.

The results were published last summer in the peer-reviewed medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Since then, 150 women have completed the process in additional clinical trials. The company says all the women achieved growth but those results have yet to be published.

Baker will start offering the product to women on Monday; he says hundreds of women have already requested it.

Doctors at the ASAPS meeting who examined the device and the research results say they don’t doubt that it the product is safe or that it will give most women some growth — the idea of tension-induced tissue growth has been used in reconstructive surgery for 30 years.

But many are concerned about whether their patients will actually comply with the system’s rigorous demands for such subtle results. The bra-like device consists of two hard plastic domes ringed with silicone, a small battery-charged control box and a bra-like covering.

“It’s an idea that works but it’s just too laborious,” Dr. Brian Kinney, a clinical assistant professor of plastic surgery at the University of Southern California and spokesman for the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Dr. James Baker (no relation to Dr. Thomas Baker) of Winter Park, Fla., a clinical professor of plastic surgery at University of South Florida and head of the breast surgery committee at ASAPS, says he won’t carry the product because he predicts a lot of patient disappointment.

“I have concerns people are going to be unrealistic about what will be accomplished and they’ll be disappointed,” he said. “After investing $2,000 in a device that you have to wear for a minimum of 10 hours a day for up to 4 months, your cup size only increases by 3 ounces. That’s not a lot for spending half your day wearing this.”

He also points out that in the study, almost a quarter of patients didn’t complete the trial — some dropped out and others were kicked out for not wearing the device as directed. Outside of a clinical trial, he says, women will be even less likely to comply.

Khouri says he is the first to admit patient compliance poses the biggest hurdle to success with Brava. “This is not for everybody,” Khouri said. “This is for patients with patience.”

But the device was free in the trials, he adds, and paying customers aren’t going to want to waste their money.

James Baker disagrees: “It’s like buying a gym membership or some expensive piece of home exercise equipment. How many of us have done that and only used it a few times?”

Dr. Mark Jewell, a spokesperson for ASAPS, and a plastic surgeon in private practice in Eugene, Ore., is considering using the product in his practice but, like James Baker, worries patients may be disappointed with the results. “The amount of breast volume increase may not satisfy the desires of many women,” Jewell said. “Women who come in for implants usually want to go up two sizes. Plus, many women are going to be unwilling to walk around for that many hours a day wearing essentially breast pumps.”

But he says he may be willing to offer it because it does give women who are averse to surgery an option.

SAGGING CONCERNS

Sue, a 40-year-old stay-at-home mother of two teen-agers, participated in the trial. The San Francisco woman had experienced shrinkage and sagging since breast-feeding her children years before and they had never gone back to their pre-motherhood state.

Sue and her doctor were initially worried that the vacuum device might stretch her breasts and result in more sagging. So she was pleased when the top of her breast started filling in. “It made me look like I had a breast lift,” she said. “I’m fuller, it’s what I had always wanted. They’re like the breasts I had before I had children.”

Khouri says the device doesn’t cause sagging because it’s not just stretching the skin — it’s stimulating the growth of breast tissue. As a result, the breast actually looks fuller, not emptier, he said.

Sue started the process as an A and ended as a full B. She’s now back in a follow-up clinical trial to find out if she can increase her breast size even further.

She says the device was a little cumbersome and it took her a few days to get used to sleeping on her back, but was worth it. “I’m thrilled. I didn’t want surgery. It’s wonderful to know it’s my own breast tissue,” she said.

Her husband was skeptical but supportive. “My husband has a great sense of humor so for him this was joke material — he calls me Barbarella or Vavoom.”

As for how wearing this device all night long for several months affects a woman’s sex life, Sue says, “Men can be very creative when they want to be.”

To get the system, women must find a doctor who offers it — listed on Brava’s Web site — and then go in for a consultation, evaluation and fitting. Though the company says there’s no evidence tension-induced tissue growth increases cancer risk, they recommend against use by women who have had breast cancer or who have a family history of the disease

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Let me take you on a journey into bliss.

[torontotrance]

sounds great for women who want bigger breasts.

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"No Sound System Is Safe"-Leftfield

[Guest xfactor834]

I think that's the longest post I've ever read

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Don't fly too high on borrowed wings

[torontotrance]

Yes, it was a long post.

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"No Sound System Is Safe"-Leftfield

[dale77]

I'd totally want to get this if it wasn't for the fact that my great grandmother and my mother both had breast cancer....it doesn't look so good for me, kids!!!

But hey maybe I'll get lucky, right?

Oh well, guess I'll have to live with what little I've got. Atleast my butt is cute.

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You're only young once

[starcapone]

i don't need that, big boobs run in the family. i could give u some of my mothers!!

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[tastyt]

Originally posted by dale77:

Oh well, guess I'll have to live with what little I've got. Atleast my butt is cute.

LOL, I understand you perfectly!!! Whenever I think, "damn, why aren't my boobs anywhere near as large as my Mom's?" I then realize- no one in her family has a butt! I guess it was one or the other for me!

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Let me take you on a journey into bliss.