Most ridiculous question award will go to this - may as well throw it out there!

[Monkeymonk2011]

Ok I'm sure this is totally utter pure silliness, I probably already know the answer but why not give it a go!

I been thinking I know a compression vest is only a temporary option, but lets say i wore it extensively months after surgery during sleep and what not (let me state i have had lipo only - still have puffy nipples but no gland according to surgeon) and it sucks my nipples in to my chest, what if worn over such a period of time my body actually adapts to the new shape the body sculpting garment gives.What if the nipple actually sticks to the chest if worn over such time and remains like this.

Yes i know this is probably not possible. Although I have heard about traction and increasing neck size in Africa with rings, tight corsetting on women where the body evolves along with organs, even penis size increases if stretched for a long enough consistent period of time the body gets used to it - not using this principle and know its totally different but i know the power of the body could the puffy nipples eventually retract permanently towards with the garment?

As said earlier I don't have gland according to surgeon and already had lipo - I'm desperate and this sounds like outrageous idiotism I'm sure. But hey why not haha! my mind is racing with things to cure them! I'm almost embarrassed to click the post button

[Dr. Elliot Jacobs]

My professional answer to your question is "no" -- it will not be helpful.

On the other hand, it is totally harmless to try this -- so why don't you do this and answer your own question on this forum in six months?

Dr Jacobs

[Litlriki]

I would have to agree with Dr. Jacobs.

Every day at the end of the day when I take my socks off to go to bed, I have a line of demarcation where the pressure from my socks reduced the swelling that developed in my legs above where the socks end.  So every day, those socks are providing a little bit of pressure on my feet.  Nonetheless, in the past year, I discovered that my feet had grown another half size. 

I am also almost embarrassed to click the post button, but it is a fun thought.

[DrBermant]

Ok I'm sure this is totally utter pure silliness, I probably already know the answer but why not give it a go!

I been thinking I know a compression vest is only a temporary option, but lets say i wore it extensively months after surgery during sleep and what not (let me state i have had lipo only - still have puffy nipples but no gland according to surgeon) and it sucks my nipples in to my chest, what if worn over such a period of time my body actually adapts to the new shape the body sculpting garment gives.What if the nipple actually sticks to the chest if worn over such time and remains like this.

Yes i know this is probably not possible. Although I have heard about traction and increasing neck size in Africa with rings, tight corsetting on women where the body evolves along with organs, even penis size increases if stretched for a long enough consistent period of time the body gets used to it - not using this principle and know its totally different but i know the power of the body could the puffy nipples eventually retract permanently towards with the garment?

As said earlier I don't have gland according to surgeon and already had lipo - I'm desperate and this sounds like outrageous idiotism I'm sure. But hey why not haha! my mind is racing with things to cure them! I'm almost embarrassed to click the post button

I have been seeing the transformation in my office for several years now with second stage body shaping garments as a temporizing band-aide for contouring the male chest. Each gets cautioned that the garments will stabilize tissue and contour loose skin. Here is a post where I document actual examples of different problems with and without compression garments.

https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?topic=18919.msg131399;topicseen#msg131399

The garments are also spectacular in helping with scars. Scars that evolve under pressure do so much better than without. I caution all patients that although possible, the garments most likely will not have a long term effect on the bodyshaping other than for the scars. The fact is we just do not have the tools for such research. Although I have now seen quite a few patients who have been wearing such compression therapy, other than for the advantage for the scar care, I cannot prove any shape change the garments themselves have created.

Extreme pressure corset can change the shape of bone and the rib cage. But this compression garment is just not in the same league of deforming force. I have yet to see studies on how the soft tissue permanently changes with such compression. I did see many xrays and actual feet (during my time in China) where deforming pressure was used to change the shape of feet and experienced first hand the effect of that much pressure over time. But that is on bone structure and structures that were deformed while growing.

Hope springs forever. And especially for the weight loss individual cursed with the excess drooping tissues, I would love to have something I could tell my patients: "wear it, it will help your skin contract better or reshape your tissue without surgery and here are before and several years after pictures that prove it." Any changes even if they did happen with pictures, would not be proof, there would be too many other factors that could have come into play: body fat, muscles, swelling gland decreasing to fibrotic gland, loose skin shrinking on its own and so forth. The shaping does provide an amazing emotional impact, the pressure helps with the scars, but beyond that, you are grasping at straws.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
Board Certified
American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member: American Society of Plastic Surgeons and American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons
Specializing in Gynecomastia and Surgical Sculpture of the Male Chest
(804) 748-7737