More teens opt for plastic surgery to enlarge breast size, but is it safe?

Before she underwent breast augmentation surgery last summer, Melissa Wohl said she felt self-conscious about her body -- especially at the beach.

"I wasn't as developed as some of my friends, who were filling out their bathing suits," said Wohl, 19, of Wantagh, N.Y., who attends Binghamton University. "I guess I felt like I didn't fit in."

Wohl is among an increasing number of young women looking to plastic surgery for a boost in confidence as well as cup size.

The recent death of Stephanie Kuleba, 18, of South Florida, during breast augmentation surgery has drawn attention to what some describe as a growing trend. Kuleba, whose parents say she sought the surgery to correct an inverted nipple and asymmetrical breasts, died of what may have been a rare genetic reaction to general anesthesia.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of women 18 and younger who have had breast enlargements has risen nearly 500 percent nationwide over the past decade -- a sharper climb than the 300 percent increase in breast augmentations among all age groups.

Dr. Stephen Greenberg, a plastic surgeon in Woodbury, N.Y., said he has seen a 20 to 30 percent rise in cosmetic procedures among young people. Often, he said, a girl will come in with her parents, who are buying her a breast augmentation as a birthday or high school graduation gift.

"There are girls and women who are devastated by the fact that they don't have breasts and their friends do," Greenberg said. "They don't play gymnastics and they don't go on dates or they can't wear certain clothing, and I hear these things every day."

Still only 2 percent of total

Not everyone agrees.

Dr. Alan Gold, a Great Neck, N.Y., plastic surgeon, noted that those 18 and younger accounted for only 2 percent of the nearly 400,000 breast augmentation surgeries performed nationwide in 2007. He said that while many might choose to have such a surgery in a "transitional period" like summer vacation when they won't see their friends every day, he has not seen a trend in graduation and birthday gift breast jobs among his patients.

Breast augmentation is the most popular plastic surgery, accounting for about 20 percent of all surgical procedures. It costs on average about $4,000, according to the plastic surgeons' society.

False perception?

"To say that you need to have a very expensive surgical procedure with real health risks in order to be considered beautiful, I think, is a problematic image," she said.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends against performing breast augmentations on patients under 18, and both Gold and Greenberg said that if younger teenagers request the surgery, they counsel them to wait. But Gold said he sees nothing necessarily wrong with performing the surgeries on those 18 or older.