Answers to Questions on Silicone and Saline Breast Implants

Dr. Francis Collini is not your typical artist.  There are no brushes, nor paint and an easel in his ‘studio’. Instead, his canvas is the human body.  The result is a transformation: younger to older, small to bigger, bigger to smaller or loose to tight- masterpieces that paint smiles on the faces of women all over Northeast Pennsylvania.

Dr. Collini’s waiting room is mini art gallery, is filled with elegant furniture and artwork depicting the changes mentioned above.  There are beautiful pieces of a surgeon’s hand painting a woman’s breast, a gloved hand chiseling a woman’s chest and a gloved hand holding a genie’s lamp releasing the image of a beautiful upper body.  There is also a sculpture with two masks of a dull old face and then a shiny young face, among many others.   Above the sculptures is a large, flat screen TV which brings to life images of cosmetic surgery to inform patients.

Behind the ‘gallery’ walls is where Dr. Collini performs hundreds of cosmetic surgeries each year, ranging from face lifts, liposuction, tummy tucks and breast enlargements.  Donna Talarico recently sat down in Dr. Collini’s Renaissance Center for Plastic Surgery in Shavertown to discuss

Donna:  Have you seen a surge in breast implants since the rise in popularity of shows like Nip/Tuck and Dr. 90210?
Collini:  I haven’t seen a surge in implants, but overall in cosmetic surgery I have.  Botox, my thread (face) lift- the non-invasive procedures- have really skyrocketed.  I started keeping stats in 1996.  That year I did 30 Botox injections.  Last year I did 360.  That’s a 100-fold increase. 

Donna:  What is your most popular procedure?
Collini:  Liposuction.  I did 266 (liposuction procedures) last year.

Donna:  How many breast implant surgeries do you do in a typical year?
Collini:  45-60.