What You Should Know Before and After Breast Implant

Posted by Matt Jackson on March 15th, 2016

Many women are willing to undergo breast enhancement surgery to improve their self-image, but before you choose this path you should fully understand the difference between before and after the surgery.

Although breast augmentation surgery is a speedy and efficient procedure, it is still serious and it is important to know what to anticipate in the work of and after, in terms of pain and recovery. A breast enhancement is performed as an outpatient procedure, usually under a general anesthetic and takes about hour. There is mild to moderate soreness that improves significantly to days after breast augmentation surgery and most patients are back to work to days after surgical procedure. Low impact activities can resume immediately but there’s some restrictions on strenuous activity for to six weeks. Six weeks after the surgical procedure there’s no restrictions.

Short term side effects of breast augmentation surgery include soreness, swelling, change in nipple sensation (increased or decreased sensation), and bruising. Most of these resolve within a few weeks to a few months. Some potential long term issues include deflation, leaking, rupture, capsular contracture, and rippling. Capsular contracture is abnormal scar tissue around the implant. All implants create a capsule around them but some can become hard or painful and may require a procedure to remove the scar tissue. An MRI can confirm leakage of a silicone implant if suspected and saline implants usually deflate entirely when there is a leak or rupture.

When thinking about breast augmentation surgery, do your home work on the choices available for types of implants. In last year, the FDA approved use of silicone implants for all females over twenty-two years elderly, which ended a thirteen year restriction on silicone implants. Plastic surgeons can now use silicone or saline implants for breast enhancement, depending on patient preference and anatomy.

If silicone implants are used in the work of breast augmentation surgery, the implants can be placed above or below the chest muscle. If saline implants are used for breast enhancement, most plastic surgeons will place them under the muscle. There’s pros and cons to placing them above and under the muscle. Placing the implants above the muscle decreases post-operative pain and may decrease distortion in the work of heavy chest muscle activity–important for body builders or bodybuilding lovers. Placing the implants below the muscle hides the upper portion of the implants and offers slightly more tissue coverage if tissue in this area was deficient.