Breast augmentation: implants
	Indications
	Surgery
	After surgery
	Conclusion

Indications

This procedure is indicated when patients consider their breasts to be too small. A number of questions are generally raised, a few of which are answered here:

- Can I have implants before having children?

Yes, because the implant is located behind the mammary gland or even deeper, behind the pectoral muscle. The mammary gland therefore functions normally and you will able to have children and to breastfeed them if you want to.
In principle, nipple and areola sensitivity is preserved.

- How are the augmented breasts positioned?

The breasts are not "upright" when you are lying on your back, but rather they "flow" naturally to the side like a normal bust (except if "shells" or hard envelopes are formed, occurring in 1% of cases). We shall return to this subject.

- How long do implants last?

They generally need to be changed after around 20 years, but this is a simple outpatient procedure and is much easier than the first operation because the implant has already found its position inside the body.

Surgery

This is carried out under general anaesthesia.
A mammogram is systematically prescribed before the operation.
Hospitalisation generally lasts 24 hours.
The scar, which is around 3 to 4 centimetres long, is either under the arm in the armpit or around the lower half of the areola, below the border between the coloured skin and the pale skin. In both cases it is practically invisible.

The implant, which is actually an envelope of medical silicone, both supple and textured (avoiding shell formation) is filled with physiological serum (water and salt) and is therefore completely innocuous.
It is placed either behind the mammary gland or, more frequently, behind the pectoral muscle as a function of different criteria:
- Shape and size of the existing breast,
- Tone of the pectoral muscle,
- The patient's wishes as to the definitive breast: more or less curved, higher or lower, etc.

It is thus easy to understand that the implant in no way hampers the function of the breast and that, as it only projects the existing mammary gland further forward, it can be monitored by palpation, mammograms or ultrasound, in the same way as for a patient without an implant.
When you wake up, you will be wearing a bra-shaped dressing that you must keep on for one week.

After surgery

On leaving the clinic you will be systematically prescribed antibiotics and painkillers. You are not permitted to carry heavy loads or raise your arms in the air for the first week.

The dressing is removed on the eighth day after the operation. The stitches are automatically resorbed. You may then resume normal activity with the exception of sports that use the pectoral muscle, which are prohibited for six weeks.

If the implant is located behind the pectoral muscle, you must not wear a bra for one month.
On the other hand, if it is in front of the muscle, you are advised to wear a bra without underwiring day and night for one month.
The aesthetic result is seen as soon as the dressing is removed, but will keep on improving and will be perfect and natural looking between three and six months after the operation.

The result is really perfect and very natural unless a shell forms. This is actually a form of rejection by the body and in this case the breast becomes firm or even hard. If the problem is not cured by medicines a further operation will be required.
The shell phenomenon occurs very soon after the operation, most often before the third month and at a maximum during the first year, but with present-day techniques and implants with textured walls, this risk affects a little under 1% of cases.

Conclusion

Breast implants are the only way to increase breast size. This operation gives remarkable results with very natural breasts and a minimum risk of shell formation, and obviously there is no increased risk of breast cancer (this was proved a long time ago by scientific studies).