[Korea Daily] Why Do Breast Surgeries Increase During the Lunar New Year Holiday?

Ms. Jeong, a 30-year-old unmarried woman in her sixth year of working, decided to have breast surgery during the New Year's holiday because her self-esteem had decreased in social situations and on blind dates due to her small breasts, which are called 'AA' size.

At first, I even completed the consultation with the intention of getting implants, but due to the side effects of implants reported in the news last winter, I changed my surgical method to stem cell fat grafting. Through a 3-hour surgery on the same day, I feel satisfied with a full A-size figure and am gaining vitality in my life.

With an increasing number of women preparing for the season of exposure by taking advantage of the New Year and Lunar New Year holidays in January, interest in stem cell cosmetic procedures is also rising as there is a surge in customers seeking stem cell breast surgery using fat grafting rather than implants, unlike last year.

According to data from SC301, a hospital specializing in stem cell breast augmentation, the number of inquiries regarding stem cell breast augmentation has more than doubled compared to last year. They also announced that interest has shifted to breast fat grafting due to the recent discovery of side effects associated with breast implants.

Breast augmentation can be broadly divided into two surgical methods: implants and fat grafting, and each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

Implants, which literally involve inserting a device into the breast area, are a surgical method sought after by many women due to their advantages, such as maintaining a round shape over time and the possibility of increasing the size by more than two cup sizes.

However, since the implants remain in place even when weight changes, it is difficult to maintain a natural body line, and in some cases, revision surgery is frequently required.

In particular, the reality is that the recent confirmation that implants previously used as harmless to the human body cause cancer is amplifying the anxiety of women who have undergone breast augmentation with implants, and interest in implant removal is rising as well.

Breast fat grafting, which is emerging as an alternative to implant issues, involves extracting fat from fat-rich areas such as the thighs or abdomen using a syringe and injecting it into the breasts. Since it utilizes the patient's own fat, it has the advantage of causing no rejection and having virtually no side effects.

However, there is a problem in that the survival rate of the transplanted fat is only 10 to 20 percent, so additional surgery is sometimes performed, and although there are no side effects, the satisfaction with the surgery is low because the breasts often return to their original state within a year.

Breast augmentation using the patient's own fat is considered the best surgery with no side effects if the engraftment rate is high; above all, because the procedure is performed via injection, the surgical risk is relatively low, making it a highly safe surgical method.

A surgical method that overcomes the problems of such fat grafting is 'stem cell breast augmentation' surgery.

It is evaluated as a surgical method that addresses the disadvantages of both implants and simple fat grafting, as it has raised the engraftment rate—the biggest drawback of fat grafting—from the conventional 10–20% to 76%, eliminating the need for revision surgery, and allowing the fat to engraft in accordance with the body's natural cycle after surgery.

In particular, Director Shin Dong-jin of SC301 is considered the leading figure in the field of 'stem cell breast augmentation' and is creating a boom in the domestic stem cell cosmetic field by being the first to prove a '76%' engraftment rate through an international paper.

Director Shin Dong-jin said, “General fat grafting clinics are also performing stem cell breast augmentation based on a proven engraftment rate of 76% derived from thousands of recent surgical data,” and urged, “You must verify whether there is actual evidence proving the engraftment rate.”

Meanwhile, Director Shin Dong-jin of SC301, as the President of the Korean Society of Stem Cell Plastic Surgery, was the first to prove a 76% engraftment rate through an international paper related to stem cell breast augmentation.