Health: Scalpel News.

Botox for Breasts

Besides injecting Botox into forehead wrinkles, doctors have used it to smooth smile lines, arch eyebrows, narrow noses, and prevent underarm sweating. The latest novel use is in the breasts. When injected into chest muscles, Botox relaxes them, improving posture and making breasts look perkier, says dermatologist Kevin Smith of Niagara Falls, Ontario. The results occur in a week or two, then last for three to four months, he says. (A possible side effect is increased nipple erectness for up to four weeks.) Smith says the treatment is best for women with an A or B cup and is less effective in anyone who is obese, is over age 55, or has severely drooping breasts. But Manhattan plastic surgeon Michael Kane, author of The Botox Book, believes the practice "is taking a large risk" -- the chance that injecting too deeply could puncture a lung -- "for a small benefit." Smith says that lung collapse from the small needle "is not an issue" and that "the biggest risk is disappointment" from patients expecting the results of a surgical breast lift. It "will produce improvement in posture with a secondary improvement in breast presentation," he emphasizes.

Laser Perfect

Laser skin resurfacing is one of the most effective ways to repair wrinkled, sun-damaged, or mottled skin, but the procedure, which burns off the skin's top layer, involves postoperative pain, peeling, prolonged redness and itching, and the risk of scarring. Now a procedure called fractional resurfacing, which will be available by early fall, offers nearly the same results with no side effects other than mild temporary redness. The Fraxel, a device developed by Harvard Medical School dermatologist R. Rox Anderson, emits microscopic pinpoints of light rather than a solid beam. "This may be the Holy Grail of lasers," says San Diego dermatologist Richard Fitzpatrick, who helped develop the original CO2 laser for facial resurfacing. Plastic surgeon Barry Weintraub advises four or five treatments, two or three days apart. In the cities where he practices, New York and Los Angeles, that will cost about ...