The popularity of breast implant surgery has grown substantially in the last 50 years and even more so in the last two decades. With changes and advancements in the areas of technology as well as medicine, it has made for the procedure to become less difficult for patients to recover from and overall a safer process.
Breast implant surgery is also known as Augmentation Mammoplasty, breast enlargement, and more commonly known as a “boob job”,and is the most common plastic surgery procedure in the United States. Women typically have this procedure when they are unhappy with the way their breasts are proportioned with the rest of their body, are interested in more uniformity, or even more cleavage. Breast implants are also used in post-mastectomy breast reconstruction, as well as reforming certain deformities in the chest wall. They can also be used in the creating of breasts in male to female transsexual patients. Interestingly enough, there is a procedure also for the male pectoral reconstruction for deformities and other unfortunate oddities which may be found in the chest wall of a man.
There are several choices of implant mechanisms which are named by the material used in creating them. The three main types used are saline, silicone, and alternative composition. The first two are self explanatory, however the alternative composition includes certain natural fillers such as soy oil.
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As it pertains to the procedure itself it is done with a general anesthesia, before which you and your doctor will discuss the size and shape in which you will prefer. In this procedure, the incisions will be made according to a couple things such as thickness of natural breast tissue, and size of implant as well as type of implant. There are generally five types of procedures in which incisions are made to different areas of the body. The inframammory procedure is an incision made in the fold directly under the breast, mainly with silicone implants. Periareolar is an incision made on the border of the areola making less visible scars, and used in a mastopexy or breast lift. The transaxillary incision is made in the arm pit where there is a path directly to the breast area. These are the main incisions made in breast augmentation procedures, however the others may be done depending on the patients circumstances. Incisions can and will be made in the abdominally in the case the patient is looking to have an abdominoplasty or “tummy tuck” done. Then there is also a procedure where the incision is made in the navel which is called a transumbilical incision.
As for the healing process, a patient having breast implants can expect to be mostly healed in the span of six weeks. Typically in today’s procedure you can expect to able to go back to your normal way of living with work, social activities, etc. anywhere within 48 hours to one week after surgery. Patients are given special compression bras to help with the stability of the new breasts as well as comfort in the healing process. The breast area can be expected to be sore and tender to touch for a couple weeks after surgery and patients are advised to do a simple arm raising exercise to help with soreness. There will be check-ups with the doctor regularly for the next several weeks or even months to make sure that there are no post surgery difficulties or malfunctions where another surgery is necessary. Typically, a patient can expect to still be healing completely up to a year after the breast implant procedure has been completed.
Be sure to get all of the details when considering breast implants, as there is a wealth of information on the subject. Your doctor will be able to help guide you down the right path to making all the necessary decisions and making the process as smooth and as painless as possible.