New York women looking for va-va-voom cleavage can now Hoover their way to a better bust with a battery-powered bra.
A handful of New York plastic surgeons have begun offering the breast-building contraption to their less-endowed female patients.
“Women are calling up in droves,” said Manhattan plastic surgeon David Rapaport, who started using the Brava Breast Enhancement and Shaping System two weeks ago.
The device consists of two hard plastic domes, ringed with silicone, and a power box. The unit is covered by what looks like a sports bra. When the system is turned on, air is sucked out of the domes, creating a vacuum that induces breast tissue to grow.
On average, a woman’s breasts go up one cup size, according to a study published last June in the prestigious medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
But it’s no quick fix: the device, which costs $2,500 – about two-thirds the cost of traditional breast implants – must be worn at least 10 hours a day for 10 weeks.
To get the system, which was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a nonregulated medical device, women must find a doctor who offers it, and then go in for a consultation, evaluation and fitting.
Katie, a 36-year-old mother of two, went up a full cup size when she participated in a clinical trial for the device last year.
“I used to be a 34B, but then my breasts shrunk and sagged after breast-feeding,” said the San Francisco schoolteacher.
“I was initially worried that Brava might actually stretch my breasts and cause more sagging, but I’m thrilled with the result. I look like I have a breast lift – they’re fuller, smoother, like the breasts I had before having children.”
Roger Khouri, the product’s inventor and medical director of Brava, said the device doesn’t cause sagging because it’s not stretching the skin, it’s stimulating the growth of breast tissue.
But he stressed that some women will respond better to its use than others.
“It’s not for women who are already C cups,” he explained. “It’s for As and Bs who don’t want surgery but want to be a little bigger.”
But not every doctor is shouting bravo about Brava.
Manhattan plastic surgeon Darrick Antell expressed concern that the bra could accelerate breast cancer.
“If the bra is stimulating breast-tissue growth, it could also encourage the growth of precancerous cells,” said Antell, a spokesman for the American Academy of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.
Although the company said there’s no evidence the device increases breast-cancer risk, it recommends that it not be used by women who have had breast cancer or are otherwise at high risk for the disease.
Despite the potential for controversy, women who’ve used Brava have been thrilled with the results.
Marie, 37, said she has no regrets about sleeping on her back wearing a cone-shaped bra for 10 weeks.
“I was so sick of looking like a little girl,” she said. “I’m glad I did it. I was uncomfortable with the idea of surgery, and I really love the fact that it’s my own breast tissue.”
Doctors offering the device are listed on Brava’s Web site: http://www.mybrava.com.