Why This Plastic Surgeon Says It’s All About Technique When It Comes to Breast Augmentation

For Houston plastic surgeon Kriti Mohan, MD, performing breast augmentations isn’t simply a surgery, it’s an art form. That’s why when it comes to her practice’s signature “Ciaravino Method,” there’s a big emphasis on technique. “All patients who have a breast augmentation are good candidates for this surgery—we think of it as a specific way that we perform the procedure to ensure that results are very good, very consistent and the recovery is smooth.”

Can you take us through the steps of the surgery?

It starts from the very beginning. Essentially, our goal is to focus on a very personalized method in terms of how we select the implant for the patient and tailoring it to their body. That’s very important. For example, based on a patient’s height, weight and their measurements, we are very careful about the implant size—if you don’t pick the best implant size, the aesthetic results may suffer. If you pick too big of a size, it can actually create a lot of damage to the body and normal anatomy, which isn’t going to deliver a good outcome. We also aim to make very, very small incisions. We’re able to do that because we are not actually manually touching the implants, which also allows us to precisely place the implant. During the actual procedure itself, we are very careful about how we do the dissection and how we create that ‘pocket.’ It’s a very precise pocket placement. Finally, we have literally no blood loss, so patients have very minimal swelling and no bruising.

What can a patient expect post-procedure?

All of our patients typically, by the next day, feel pretty good. We use IV sedation—instead of general anesthesia—so that makes a big difference. For the most part, our patients walk in, get an IV and a little bit of medicine, and basically go to sleep—but they are still breathing on their own. That’s significant, because that’s one of those things that gives a lot of patients, especially women, nausea and vomiting after surgery. None of our patients have any of that. By the time the surgery is done, because we’re not doing that general anesthesia, they’re awake and talking to me right after I finish the procedure, so I’m even able to talk to them in recovery before they go home. By the next day, they’re going to have some soreness, of course, but our patients don’t really use narcotics. So, within a day after surgery, they’re up and doing their normal activities, including driving, because they’re not requiring any pain medicine.

What can a patient expect as far as scarring goes?

We see all of our patients in their post-op. We monitor their incisions and, very soon into their post-op period, we do some very specialized scar care with them. We educate them on applying silicone-based products and provide them with all the information they need to allow that scar to fade very, very nicely. I always tell all my patients that scarring is a process. The biological process takes a full year to occur, so it’s good to be diligent about scar care for that full year. Having normal redness and pinkness of your incision is just part of the normal process of healing, but if the patient follows all the things that we’ve given them in their instruction booklet, they can improve the healing process and, basically, barely see the scar at that year mark.

Have you seen an uptick in women wanting breast augmentations this past year?

Yes, definitely. I would say that that’s mainly because people are working remotely. They really have a lot more flexibility—and they’re not able to travel as much and do any of those things that they normally would. We’ve definitely seen patients having the luxury of more free time, and they were waiting to do this. Now, it’s an easier time to recover and not have all the normal stresses of going to work and everything else in life.