Georgia Breast Implants Surgeon
From The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
How will my plastic surgeon evaluate me for breast augmentation surgery?
Your breast implants surgeon will examine your breasts and perhaps take photographs for your medical record. He or she will consider such factors as the size and shape of your breasts, the quality of your skin and the placement of your nipples and areolas (the pigmented skin surrounding the nipples). If your breasts are sagging, a breast lift may be recommended in conjunction with augmentation.
You should come to the consultation prepared to discuss your medical history. This will include information about any medical conditions, drug allergies, medical treatments you have received, previous surgeries including breast biopsies, and medications that you currently take. You will be asked whether you have a family history of breast cancer and about results of any mammograms. It is important for you to provide complete information.
There is no scientific evidence that breast augmentation increases the risk of breast cancer. The presence of breast implants, however, makes it more technically difficult to take and read mammograms. This may be a special consideration for women who perhaps are at higher risk for breast cancer because of their family history or other reasons. Placement of the implant underneath the pectoral muscle may interfere less with mammographic examination, but other factors may also need to be considered with regard to implant placement. Your plastic surgeon will discuss this with you.
If you are planning to lose a significant amount of weight, be sure to tell your plastic surgeon. He or she may recommend that you stabilize your weight prior to undergoing surgery.
If you think that you may want to become pregnant in the future, you should mention this to your surgeon. Pregnancy can alter breast size in an unpredictable way and could affect the long-term results of your breast augmentation. There is no evidence that breast implants will affect pregnancy or your ability to breast-feed, but if you have questions about these matters, you should ask your plastic surgeon.
How should I prepare for surgery?
In some instances, your plastic surgeon may recommend a baseline mammogram before surgery and another mammographic examination some months after surgery. This will help to detect any future changes in your breast tissue. Following breast augmentation, you will still be able to perform breast self-examination.
If you are a smoker, you will be asked to stop smoking well in advance of surgery. Aspirin and certain anti-inflammatory drugs can cause increased bleeding, so you should avoid taking these medications for a period of time before surgery. Your surgeon will provide you with additional preoperative instructions.
Breast augmentation is usually performed on an outpatient basis. If this is the case, be sure to arrange for someone to drive you home after surgery and to stay with you at least the first night following surgery.
What will the day of surgery be like?
Your breast augmentation surgery may be performed in a hospital, free-standing ambulatory facility or office-based surgical suite.
Medications are administered for your comfort during the surgical procedure. Frequently, local anesthesia and intravenous sedation are used for patients undergoing breast augmentation, although general anesthesia may be desirable in some instances. When surgery is completed, you will be taken into a recovery area where you will continue to be closely monitored. Your breasts will be wrapped in gauze dressings or a surgical bra.
You may be permitted to go home after a few hours, unless you and your plastic surgeon have determined that you will stay in the hospital or surgical facility overnight.
How will I look and feel initially?
A day or two after surgery, you should be up and about. Any dressings will be removed within several days, and you may be instructed to wear a support bra. Your plastic surgeon will probably permit you to shower between three and seven days following surgery. Stitches will be removed in about a week.
Some discoloration and swelling will occur initially, but this will disappear quickly. Most residual swelling will resolve within a month.
When can I resume my normal activities?
After breast augmentation surgery, it is often possible to return to work within just a few days or a week, depending on your job. Vigorous activities, especially arm movement, may be restricted for two to three weeks.
Sexual activity should be avoided for at least the first week following surgery. After that, care must be taken to be extremely gentle with your breasts for at least the next month.
What type of implants will be used?
Currently, all women undergoing their first breast augmentation receive saline-filled implants which consist of a silicone shell filled with sterile saltwater.
The implant is placed in a pocket either directly behind the breast tissue (right) or underneath the pectoral muscle which is located between the breast tissue and chest wall.
New scientific data on the safety of breast implants is rapidly being collected. In the future, it is possible that additional types of filler materials may become available. Your plastic surgeon will be able to provide you with the latest information.
Where are the incisions placed?
One of the advantages of a saline-filled implant is that, because it is filled with saltwater after being inserted, only a small incision is needed. Often, an incision of less than one inch is made underneath the breast, just above the crease, where it is usually quite inconspicuous.
Another possible location for the incision is around the lower edge of the areola. A third alternative is to make a small incision within the armpit.
An incision can be made either underneath the breast, just above the crease, around the lower edge of the areola or within the armpit.
Once the incision is made, the surgeon creates a pocket into which the implant will be inserted. This pocket is made either directly behind the breast tissue or underneath the pectoral muscle which is located between the breast tissue and chest wall.
What are the Results of Breast Augmentation?
Breast augmentation will make your breasts fuller and enhance their shape. You will find it easier to wear certain styles of clothing. Like many women who have had breast augmentation, you may have a boost in self-confidence.
How long will the results last?
Except in the event of implant deflation requiring surgical replacement with a new implant, the results of your breast augmentation surgery will be long-lasting. However, gravity and the effects of aging will eventually alter the size and shape of virtually every woman’s breasts. If, after a period of years, you become dissatisfied with the appearance of your breasts, you may choose to undergo a breast “lifting” to restore their more youthful contour.
Frequently Asked Breast Enlargement Questions From Mentor Corporation
What is a Breast Implant?
A breast implant is a sac (implant shell) of silicone elastomer (rubber), which is surgically implanted under your chest tissues.
Saline-Filled Breast Implants: The saline breast implant is inflated with a saline (salt-water) solution through a valve. Saline is much like the fluid that makes up most of the human body. There are two types/families of implants filled with saline — one referred to as Saline-Filled and the other referred to as Spectrum™ implants. The Saline-Filled family of implants has a self-sealing valve located on the front (anterior) of the implant that is used for filling the device. The Spectrum™ family has a valve on the back (posterior) of the implant that allows saline to be added after surgery (postoperative adjustability). Mentor’s Spectrum implant is a saline-filled breast implant that lets your physician adjust the size of your breasts after your surgery. In a simple office procedure, your physician can change your implant size by either adding or removing saline for up to six months after your surgery.
Are There Different Styles of Breast Implants?
Breast implants come in a variety of shapes, surface textures, and sizes. The implants are available with a textured or smooth surface shells. Mentor breast implants come in either round or contoured shapes. Mentor’s Spectrum implant is an adjustable saline-filled breast implant that lets your physician adjust the size of your breasts after your breast augmentation surgery. In a simple office procedure, your physician can change your implant size by either adding or removing saline for up to six months after your surgery.
Is Breast Augmentation Painful?
You will probably feel somewhat tired and sore for several days following the operation, and your breasts may remain swollen and sensitive to physical contact for a month or longer. You may also experience a feeling of tightness in the breast area as your skin adjusts to your new breast size. Postoperative care may involve the use of a postoperative bra, compression bandage, or jog bra for extra support and positioning while you heal. At your surgeon’s recommendation, you will most likely be able to return to work within a few days, although for at least a couple of weeks you should avoid any strenuous activities that could raise your pulse and blood pressure. Your surgeon may also recommend breast massage exercises.
Pain of varying intensity and duration may occur and persist following breast implant surgery. In addition, improper size, placement, surgical technique, or capsular contracture may result in pain associated with nerve entrapment or interference with muscle motion. You should tell your doctor about severe pain.
Can I Have a Mammogram if I Have a Breast Implant?
Women with breast implants undergo mammography and other imaging techniques just as do women without implants. You may wish to undergo a preoperative mammogram and another one 6 months to 1 year after implantation to establish a baseline. With breast implants, routine screening mammography will be more difficult, and you will need to have additional views, which means more time and radiation. However, the benefit of the mammogram in finding cancer outweighs the risk of the additional x-rays. Breast implants may complicate the interpretation of mammographic images by obscuring underlying breast tissue and/or by compressing overlying tissue. Accredited mammography centers and use of displacement techniques are needed to adequately visualize breast tissue in the implanted breast. Women with breast implants must inform mammography technologists about the presence of their implants so that the technologist can use special techniques to minimize the possibility of rupture and to get the best possible views of the breast tissue. Because the breast is squeezed during mammography, it is possible for an implant to rupture during the procedure.
Deposits of calcium can be seen on mammograms and can be mistaken for possible cancer, resulting in additional surgery to biopsy and/or removal of the implant to distinguish them from cancer.
Can I Breast-Feed with Breast Implants?
Breast implants may interfere with your ability to successfully breast-feed. With respect to the ability to successfully breast-feed after breast implantation, one study reported up to 64% of women with implants who were unable to breast feed compared to 7% without implants. The periareolar incision site may significantly reduce the ability to successfully breast-feed.
At this time it is not known if a small amount of silicone may diffuse (pass through) from the saline-filled breast implant silicone shell and may find its way into breast milk. If this occurs, it is not known what effect it may have on the nursing infant. Although there are no current methods for detecting silicone levels in breast milk, a study measuring silicon (one component in silicone) levels did not indicate higher levels in breast milk from women with silicone-filled gel implants when compared to women without implants.
Will the Feeling in my Breast or Nipple Change?
Feeling in the nipple and breast can increase or decrease after implant surgery. The range of changes varies from intense sensitivity to no feeling in the nipple or breast following surgery. Changes in feeling can be temporary or permanent and may affect sexual response or the ability to nurse a baby.
Are Breast Implants Permanent?
Breast implants are not considered lifetime devices. You will likely undergo implant removal with or without replacement over the course of your life. Whether you are undergoing augmentation or reconstruction, be aware that breast implantation may not be a one-time surgery. You are likely to need additional surgery and doctor visits over the course of your life.
Many of the changes to your breast following implantation are irreversible (cannot be undone). Problems such as deflation, capsular contracture, infection, and shifting can require removal of the implants. Many women decide to have the implants replaced, but some women do not. If you later choose to have your implant(s) removed, you may experience unacceptable dimpling, puckering, wrinkling, or other cosmetic changes of the breast.
Deposits of calcium can be seen on mammograms and can be mistaken for possible cancer, resulting in additional surgery to biopsy and/or removal of the implant to distinguish them from cancer.
The above information is from Mentor Corporation. You can visit their web site at www.mentor4me.com
For More Information
Call a breast implants surgeon at the Swan Center for Plastic Surgery at (770) 667-0904 or use our breast augmentation contact form to request more information and schedule your complimentary consultation in Georgia.
Click to see Breast Implants (Enlargement) Pictures.
The above information is from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. You can visit their web site at www.surgery.org
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Call the Swan Center for Plastic Surgery at (770) 667-0904 or use our contact form to request more information or schedule your complimentary cosmetic surgery consultation.
