Women in Baltimore and all across the country are looking for a natural look and feel when it comes to cosmetic surgery. They want breast implants that aren’t too big or disproportionate to their body, but still provide a boost of confidence and femininity. Dr. Ronald Schuster understands his client base and exactly how to provide the natural breast implant look and feel they are going for. Get to know him and why he loves to recommend the IDEAL IMPLANT® Structured Breast Implant to his patients.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your practice.
“I’m Dr. Ronald Schuster. I’m a board-certified plastic surgeon with a private practice in Baltimore, Maryland, where I have been since I began back in 1991. I perform a lot of breast surgery—it has been a major part of my practice for all these years. I have patients that I treat locally, regionally, and sometimes from out of state. I perform all types of breast surgery—breast augmentation, breast enhancement, breast lift, breast reduction, you name it, I can do it with the breast. I like to present all the different options to my patients, and I think they respect me for that. I try to give a very honest opinion as far as what can be helped and what can’t be helped. Women have different priorities and I help them sort it all out. I think they appreciate that.”
What is the main reason women choose your practice?
“I think women choose me as their surgeon because of my reputation of honesty and being able to deliver great surgical results. They know that when they come to my office, I’m not going to just be selling them on a particular procedure of the month or the year. I listen to what their concerns are and I take them very seriously. I examine them and tell them an honest opinion of what I see and what it would take to get them to their goals.”
What is the process of a breast implant consultation like?
“So breast augmentation and breast enhancement consultations take a long time in my practice because there are so many different options. I need to listen to the woman’s goals and concerns, then help them pick from the many options that might be available. So to do that, for example, I need to go through the different implants that are available to them. Some women have done the research beforehand and some of them haven’t. I let them feel the implants during the consultation, and we will try the implants on to give them an idea of size. I stress during the consultation what it will take to get them to the appearance that they want to get to. I encourage them to bring in photographs of models or celebrities, or naked photographs, and we look at my website that has photographs of women both before and after surgery. And it’s communication. I stress communication. I need to understand what they’re looking for and then I can help them to get there.”
What types of breast implants do you offer?
“Now there’s more implants than ever that are available. There’s also been dramatic improvement in implant technology, which benefits the woman. So traditionally there’s been the unstructured saline implant, silicone gel implants, and the newest member of the group which is the IDEAL IMPLANT structured implant. I’m excited to be able to offer the IDEAL IMPLANT. I’ve used them since inception and I’ve been extremely happy with them. My patients have loved them. I’ve been extremely happy with them. However, I will honestly say, they’re not for everyone. So they have a certain role in my practice, but I would say the vast majority of women can use the IDEAL IMPLANT and get great results.”
Have most of your patients heard about the IDEAL IMPLANT?
“Women that come to my practice for breast augmentation sometimes have done a lot of research in their choices of what they want specifically with respect to the type of implant, whether it’s unstructured saline, silicone gel, or the IDEAL structured implant. More and more, as women are learning about the IDEAL IMPLANT, they are coming in specifically asking for the IDEAL IMPLANT, which is wonderful news.”
What’s been your experience with the IDEAL IMPLANT and do you recommend it?
“It is different from both the traditional, unstructured saline implant and the silicone gel implant, because it is a structured implant. The reason why it was invented is because they tried to join the benefits of both the unstructured saline implant and the silicone gel implant into a single type of implant.
“The benefits of a silicone gel implant is that by and large, most patients and surgeons consider this silicone gel implant to be the softest, most breast-like feel. However, it comes with a little bit of a drawback because silicone gel does not dissolve. When silicone gel breaks, the gel pretty much stays inside the breast, but women do not know that it has broken. Now you can always get an MRI or an ultrasound to find out about it, but it’s still a bit unsettling for many, many women.
“The unstructured saline implant avoids that whole problem because when it breaks, the saline will leak out of the implant and be harmlessly absorbed by the body. So it’s very safe. The next day the woman wakes up and notices one breast is smaller. Even though it’s not an unsafe, unhealthy situation, it’s still unsettling to them.
“The IDEAL IMPLANT joins the good parts about both implants. Because it is a structured implant, it has sort of an implant inside of an implant, with two separate compartments that are separated by shells. And so it is very unlikely that both of these compartments are going to break at the same time. Therefore, if only one breaks at a time, the saline leaks out, it doesn’t make you sick and the implant gets a little smaller, but it doesn’t flatten out like a flat tire. It sort of sends a little bit of a signal to the woman like, ‘oh, something’s going on. I better see my doctor,’ but she doesn’t have to freak out.
“In addition, The IDEAL IMPLANT feels very close, if not identical to, the silicone gel. So it combines the feel of silicone gel with the safety profile of an unstructured saline implant, without having to worry about a broken silicone implant in your body and not know about it.”
How would you compare replacing an IDEAL IMPLANT rupture with replacing a silicone gel implant rupture?
“Anything that’s man made, whether it’s a heart valve, a knee replacement, or a breast implant, is going to wear out eventually. Fortunately the implants today are made to last a long time, whether it’s 10, 20, or 30 years. If it’s not broken, you don’t have to fix it. However, when implants do break, there’s a big difference between a broken silicone gel implant and a broken IDEAL structured implant. When a silicone gel implant breaks, the silicone gel on the inside can come out of the implant and sort of lubricate the inside of the breast implant capsule. Usually it’s really not much of a problem and it just takes a little bit of experienced work to be able to get that silicone gel out.
“With the IDEAL structured implant, there is no silicone gel, so there is no chance of the silicone gel being present or getting inside the capsule or even getting outside of that scar tissue capsule. So in general, replacement of ruptured IDEAL IMPLANTs is a bit easier than replacement of silicone gel implants.”
Why were you first attracted to the IDEAL IMPLANT?
“I’ve been using IDEAL IMPLANTs since they first became commercially available. I have always been looking for a better breast implant. I always want the best thing for my patients. So when I heard about the IDEAL IMPLANT, I was really intrigued by it because many women like the feel of the silicone gel implant, but they are nervous about the idea of something possibly being broken in their body.
“I’ve been in practice long enough to have helped women with problems that they had with early generation silicone gel implants, where the silicone gel was causing lumps and cysts and things that shouldn’t go on. Fortunately, silicone gel has evolved and we see less of those problems, but that doesn’t mean it has replaced those problems. Women also don’t necessarily like the results of traditional, unstructured saline implants because there’s significant rippling. For many women, it’s not a great solution.
“So the IDEAL IMPLANT combines the benefits of both implants. It really does feel like a silicone gel implant and it does not have the ripples and the issues associated with the traditional, unstructured saline implant. So I have been using them and I’m very happy. It’s not for everyone. I’m very honest with a woman as far as what it will do and what it won’t do and how it may or may not achieve their aesthetic goals and whether or not they need to change their priorities as far as what they are really trying to achieve.”
Have you seen lower complication rates from using the IDEAL IMPLANT?
“Anytime I speak with a woman about any type of surgery, especially with breast augmentation and breast implant surgery, we always have to talk about risks and complications of surgery. There are the usual complications or risks of surgery with any kind of surgery—bleeding, infection, scars, numbness, those kinds of things. But implants carry specific risks with them also. There’s the rupture or the breakage, the deflation rate of the implant. And then there’s also a reaction that can occur to the scar tissue that forms around the implant. We call this scar tissue that forms around the implant, a capsule. In most women that capsule stays soft and everything is fine. However, in a small percentage of women that scar tissue capsule around the implant shrinks, and that’s called capsule contracture, and all implants have these risks associated with them. So I have an honest discussion about those risks.
“In my particular experience, I have a very, very good track record of guaranteeing very, very few of these capsular contractures. However, it’s still possible. So I’m always interested in the rates that the companies tell us and how they are performing across the country and across the world. I have been using the IDEAL IMPLANT since its beginning. I was very comfortable using the implant with their recognized risks because it fit right in line with the other manufacturers. Since using them for the past five years, I’ve been delighted to find out that they are actually performing better than the other manufacturers of both traditional, unstructured saline implants, as well as the silicone gel implants. I think that their track record now and their data proves that it is a safe implant and is performing as well, if not better, than the other currently available implants.”
Have you noticed a certain type of patient requesting the IDEAL IMPLANT?
“Honestly, I can’t really tell. There’s definitely more women coming in that have heard about the IDEAL IMPLANT and specifically want it because they’ve done their research. I think women coming in that already know about the implant know that what attracts them to the IDEAL IMPLANT is that it does not have silicone gel but that it feels like silicone gel.”
Anything else you’d like to mention about your practice?
“I hope I’ve been able to answer some of your questions and help you to make the best decisions you can. I invite you to come visit me in my office. It’s very private. Everything is very, very confidential and we pride ourselves in giving a very personal experience. I think you’d love it. So come on down.”
Looking for natural breast implants in Baltimore? Contact Dr. Schuster today to discuss your options. Simply call 717-798-2880 or visit cosmeticsurgerybaltimore.com. Dr. Schuster’s office is located at 10807 Falls Road #101, Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093. Call today for more information on IDEAL IMPLANT Structured Breast Implants.