Patients in Southern California have many plastic surgeons to choose from. Selecting between them is not always easy. The surgeon that may be right for one woman may not be right for another. You need to find a surgeon whose philosophy, expertise, and approach to breast augmentation meshes well with your own feelings.

The following summarizes what Dr. Teitelbaum considers to be the distinguishing aspects of his approach to breast augmentation. Dr. Teitelbaum truly only wants to operate on patients whose philosophy about breast augmentation is in sync with his. You are invited to consider these issues and discuss them at your consultation.

1. Patient Education. Far too often, patients are told by the surgeon what to do without really listening to the patient. Others do whatever the patient asks without adequately informing the patient of the tradeoffs. Dr. Teitelbaum believes in doing what the patient wants, but ONLY after she has been fully informed of the consequences of each of her choices.
   
2. Quantitative Tissue Assessment. Most surgeons make decisions about breast augmentation based upon hunches, impressions, gut-feelings, and gestalt. These are notoriously inaccurate. Dr. Teitelbaum measures a patient’s breasts very carefully, and formulates a plan based upon her body. This allows him to select and implant that will fit within her breasts, without stretching or distorting them. The consequence is more natural results that last over a longer period of time. He specifically avoids operating on patients who request fake, unnatural, or “Baywatch” appearing breasts.
   
3. Natural Results. Plastic Surgeons’ practices evolve over time. Some doctors treat a lot of porn stars; Dr. Teitelbaum does not. Nearly all of his patients ask to “look natural.” In fact, they are afraid of looking fake and often put off getting an augmentation for fear that “you can always tell” (which you usually can’t if it is done right.) Most of the patients Dr. Teitelbaum sees are not the sort to worry that they will be big enough and “get their money’s worth,” but are concerned about looking natural and proportional and not doing anything to their breast tissue that will cause long term damage. By assessing your breast quantitatively, Dr. Teitelbaum will determine the implant that will fit in you, which means no upper bulging, minimal implant visibility and palpability. Your breast envelope will be filled but not stretched.
   
4. Knowing what to expect. Patients considering augmentation are always nervous about how big they will be after surgery. He will measure you to determine the optimal size for your tissues. He will give you a sizer of an implant to put in your bra so that you will know roughly what to expect. If you want to be bigger or smaller than he suggests from his measurements, then you can discuss that, and you can choose to go bigger or smaller. But he will explain to you the consequences of varying; going larger may mean more upper fullness and ability to see the implant, and going smaller may mean that the upper breast does not get filled out. He will explain this to you so that you will not wake up from surgery surprised at your size or shape.
   
5. Rapid Recovery. Breast augmentation can be done today so that most patients experience little discomfort after surgery. Most can shower and blow dry their hair themselves the night of surgery. Though individual response to pain can vary, stories about patients suffering severe pain or being unable to move their arms for days after surgery does not happen with the way Dr. Teitelbaum does the procedure. Expect to not need narcotics and feel well enough to leave the house for dinner your night of surgery. Dr. Teitelbaum’s patients do not need to use special bras, pain pumps, or bandages.
   
6. Choice. Dr. Teitelbaum offers patients a choice of all implant types approved by the FDA as well as all implants undergoing FDA clinical trials. No other plastic surgeon in California can say that. You will have your choice of incision and location of the implant relative to the pectoralis muscle. Breast augmentation consists of making a series of imperfect choices. Each has its own benefit and reward, and Dr. Teitelbaum will discuss these with you.
   
7. Minimizing reoperations. All augmentation patients should expect to have another breast operation at some point in the future. Dr. Teitelbaum’s goal is to put that off as long into the future as possible. He views augmentation as an entirely elective, even frivolous operation. For that reason, he believes an extra level of care must be devoted to trying to get it right the first time. While he cannot guarantee that for all patients, by carefully selecting the proper size ahead of time –rather than subjectively and inaccurately sizing an implant intraoperatively – he can nearly eliminate reoperations for size. He employs every technique that has been shown to reduce capsular contracture. Though contracture can still occur, he will take every step to reduce the likelihood of its occurrence. He has written on this subject and lectures about it frequently, so it is an issue for which he places great emphasis.
   
8. Post-operative Care. Dr. Teitelbaum does not just operate on you and send you on your way. He will see you the day after surgery, the next week, and at frequent intervals. He never charges for a follow-up visit, and encourages you to return as often as you ever have a question or concern.
   
9. Teacher of other surgeons. It is often said a surgeon doesn’t ever really understand an operation until he teaches it to someone else, and that is certainly true for breast augmentation. Dr. Teitelbaum doesn’t just enjoy teaching residents and other plastic surgeons about breast augmentation, but has found that the more he has done this, the more it has forced a refining of his own understanding of the operation, resulting in a progressively better experience for his patients. He gives the course on breast augmentation taught at the largest aesthetic surgery meeting the world, and has lectured on breast augmentation to other surgeons around the world.
   
10. Experience with various implants. In addition to saline implants, Dr. Teitelbaum has extensive experience with every silicone implant on the market in the USA today. He even has experience with the next generation of implants that are now “in the approval pipeline”, having been a clinical investigator on the experimental trials of those implants in the United States. He has among the most diverse and in-depth experience with these implants of any surgeon in the United States.
11. He will tell you the truth, not necessarily what you might want to hear. Plastic surgery is a business like any other; plastic surgeons make money by operating. While most are highly ethical and straightforward, some will say what is necessary to schedule a patient for surgery. Dr. Teitelbaum will tell you what he believes to be true. For instance, patients often bring in photographs of models that they want to look like. It would be easy enough to just say to each patient, “Yes, this is what you will look like,” but Dr. Teitelbaum will answer your questions honestly, and sometimes even bluntly. He frequently advices patients not to have surgery, such as patients that are already relatively large with nice shape in whom he does not think the benefits of surgery justifies the risks, or patients who seem to envision a result that cannot be attained with their body.