Breast augmentation on an otherwise healthy patient should be safer than driving your car to the doctor's office! Unfortunately, every year, many breast augmentation procedures are performed both locally and abroad in mass-marketed cosmetic surgery centers based on low prices, high volume, and very rapid procedures. Many of these high-speed, high-volume "chop shops" allow the patient a lower cost for surgery but also allow very little time to spend with an actual doctor, who often is not available on the weekend if complications arise. Furthermore, many of the surgeons at the "Cowboy Clinics" are not board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, which is the only board that oversees residency training for cosmetic breast surgery. And even though some of these "cosmetic surgeons" may be board certified, they frequently have no actual hospital privileges at any nearby institutions, creating a serious problem for patients with minor or major complications, which can escalate without proper early intervention. Frequently, these patients "wash up" in the hospital ER and the on-call hospital plastic surgeon has to try to figure out what went wrong on the fly with no prior evaluation. With hospital privileges at many of the best hospitals in the region, Dr. Lampert has cared for many of these patients over the years.
The Pitfalls of High-Risk, Low-Cost Clinics
The business strategy of these heavily advertised, high-volume, budget chop shop cosmetic clinics is to provide surgery like breast augmentation as a commodity for the lowest possible price. Inevitably, as they chase the highest profit margin at the lowest competitive cost to the patient, corners are cut regarding preoperative work-ups, the procedure, staff, and all safety measures in general. Frequently, non-doctors are providing anesthesia, nursing assistance is deficient, and the patient pays the price by taking otherwise unnecessary risk. Breast augmentation procedures should be extremely safe and low-risk, but with a poorly trained and inexperienced team, things can go sideways pretty quickly. The overwhelming vast majority of these cosmetic surgery assembly lines are owned and operated by non-physicians, so profit often takes place over patient safety. These high-volume cosmetic surgery centers often give legitimate, ethical, and safe board-certified plastic surgeons a bad rap and sully the reputation of the field in general. Patient safety must always be perpetually assessed and evaluated. Every measure should be taken to always improve it. No cost should be spared when it comes to patient safety. It is expensive to afford the safest equipment, best medications, and most experienced doctors, nurses, surgical assistants, and medical professionals. Frequently in life, you get what you pay for. Cosmetic surgery is no exception!
Dr. Lampert’s World-Class Facility
Dr. Lampert performs all of his procedures at the hospital or his Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC), Miami Surgery, LLC, which is Federally Certified by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), the same certification and licensing agency that licenses all of the best hospitals in the state of Florida. It is currently one of only three other Plastic Surgery ASCs in Miami-Dade County Certified by AHCA. Dr. Lampert’s facility is held to the highest standards. Having control of his own ambulatory surgery center, he is able to provide patients the advantage of many cutting-edge surgical technologies and a higher quality of equipment that is not available at the hospital. He has equipped his facility with the latest breast surgery safety equipment, including a smoke evacuation system, high-definition imaging devices, LED lighting and visualization technology, power-assisted liposuction, video laryngoscopy, and much more. Please follow this link for more details: https://www.lampertmd.com/about-dr-lampert/our-facility/
Choosing the Right Plastic Surgeon
Cosmetic results and safety metrics are ultimately the best when the given surgeon takes his or her time to ensure they adhered to the highest standards, remained detail-oriented, and cut no corners to get there. The fast procedure is often not the right procedure, although it may be the cheaper one. When interviewing a plastic surgeon, ask them how much time they typically spend performing a procedure. If they pride themselves on sheer numbers, volume, and being fast, then they might not be the right surgeon for you! Good work takes time. In order to visualize the patient’s breast tissue, pocket development, and implant position, Dr. Lampert always sits the cosmetic breast surgery patient up in the operating room several times during the surgery. He does this in order to see how the breasts will look when they are standing up. He places and removes adjustable sizers. Using these sizers allows him to see the effects of slight implant volume adjustments. Frequently, minor breast asymmetries are hard to detect when there is a difference of less than 30 cc’s (which is equal to two tablespoons!) Dr. Lampert’s use of adjustable breast sizers allows him in the operating room to see and best correct these slight irregularities with proper implant selection. No two breasts are ever symmetrical or the same, even after the best surgery, but Dr. Lampert spends the time necessary to get them as close as possible and optimize results. He then tailors any excess skin if the patient needs a breast lift or tries to visualize regions of the breast that will require fat transfer, should patients decide on that option. He is also constantly referencing the implant, nipple, and areola position while the patient is upright. These steps take significant time but should not be skipped if the surgeon wants to best control the final aesthetic result.
