Depending on the degree of skin stretch and laxity, weight-loss history, and breast size, many breast surgery patients require additional internal support to maintain a beautiful shape. A woman can get that support from a surgical scaffold that allow her own tissues to grow naturally after being lifted, tightened, reduced, or augmented.
In Grand Rapids GalaFLEX is a new option for soft-tissue reinforcement to help prevent sagging after first time breast surgery or to reduce the chance of recurring sagging following a breast lift or mastopexy, breast augmentation, or breast reduction.
Grand Rapids plastic surgeons, Dr. Brad Bengtson and Dr. David Alfonso work to give their patients the best surgical outcomes possible, which is why GalaFLEX is on the top of the menu of services when it comes to recurrent stretch or mastopexy for those who would benefit. The Bengtson Center surgeons are in fact experts in using surgical scaffolds to optimize a patient's augmentation, reduction, and lift results by improving the ultimate shape, position of the breasts, and long-term outcomes.
What Is GalaFLEX?
GalaFLEX is a bioresorbable microfilament scaffold, approved by the FDA for soft tissue reinforcement. More specifically, it's a flexible absorbable mesh made of material used in plastic surgery and general surgery procedures around the world.
When surgically implanted in the breasts, this mesh provides a scaffolding and encourages the patient's own body's collagen tissue to grow into the scaffold, guiding that growth and promoting strength and strong long-term support. In a year to a year and a half, the GalaFLEX material, called P4HB, will safely dissolve, leaving behind your own healthy tissue.
GalaFlex FAQsWhile plastic surgeons who perform breast augmentation surgeries strive to deliver outstanding results for every patient, the reality is that every woman's body and procedure is different, so results can vary, especially over time. Post-surgery changes in the years after an augmentation prompt some women to seek a revision.
The most common cause cited for the desire for breast revision surgery is sagging, technically known as ptosis. Gravity pulls breasts downward over time, especially large and heavy breasts. GalaFLEX is designed to reduce new or recurrent drooping aftereffects, especially in a woman who increases her breast volume; has poor, stretchy, elastic skin; or has had significant weight loss, by providing her breasts with a structural boost from the beginning.
Women may choose a breast lift to counteract that natural gravitational shift whether they've received implants or not, but even after a lift, breasts will still be subject to the forces pulling them downward. As Dr. Bengtson says, "if it weren't for gravity I may be out of business." Like a bra prevents breasts from hanging down, GalaFLEX provides an internal hammock or "internal bra" structure while simultaneously promoting the growth of tissue to become a more long lasting natural support.
Clinical research is showing that patients having a breast lift or mastopexy with GalaFLEX experience less of a breast position change up to two years following their surgery. In fact, results put the change at 10 percent, which is a fraction of what patients who don't have surgical scaffolding tend to see following mastopexy. Dr. Bengtson has one of the world's largest scaffold experiences, internally supporting breasts both in first-time mastopexy and breast revision surgery.
Besides GalaFLEX, there are other surgical scaffold options available, which Dr. Bengtson use to reduce the chances of post-breast-surgery adverse occurrences, including implant displacement and capsular contracture. You can discuss all of this, and more, with the Bengtson Center team in advance of any breast surgery.
Elected by his peers for inclusion in Best Doctors in America® consecutively since 1996.
Sought-after Global Speaker and Educator on all aspects of Plastic Surgery.
Read MoreTo talk with Dr. Brad Bengtson or Dr. David Alfonso about GalaFLEX Grand Rapids area patients can call the Bengtson Center in Michigan to schedule an appointment. Request your consultation online or phone us at 616.588.8880
2155 E Paris Ave SE
Suite 100, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
Contact Dr. Brad Bengtson or Dr. David Alfonso to talk about GalaFLEX in Grand Rapids. Call the Bengtson Center in Michigan at 616.588.8880 to schedule an appointment, or request your consultation online.
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