Breast Implant

Also known as Breast enlargement or Breast enhancement surgery, the procedure of Breast implant aims to reform, increase, enhance or regain the size of the Breast and thus also aims to restore the balance of the figure. This is a much sought-after procedure in cosmetic surgery and it also has a good track record of safety, success, and satisfaction in most cases.

Why Consider Surgery?

To provide the best breast augmentation surgery using Breast implants, the first step is to discuss why one needs the surgery. Some of the reasons for which individuals consider Breast implant surgery are when one wants to:

• Have a better-proportioned figure that is appealing.
• Reconstruct an absent chest either congenitally or due to a chest removal surgery (Mastectomy).
• If you want a better proportioned or more appealing figure and want clothes to fit better.
• To restore the shape when one chest looks a lot different from the other.
• When aging, chestfeeding, pregnancy or weight loss has affected the appearance of the chests.

Procedure of Breast Implant Surgery

Breast augmentation surgery using Breast implants done by Dr Sharmistha Bhattacharyya is a multi-step procedure. In this procedure, the surgeon will make an incision and place the implants in a pocket underneath the chest tissue. The implants are then placed in this tissue and the incision is closed, most commonly with absorbable sutures.

The different types of incisions in practice that can be made to place the implants are:

• Inframammary: In the chest crease underneath the chest.
• Transaxillary: Near the arm pit.
• Periareolar: Halfway around the black area surrounding the nipple.
• Transumbilical: In the belly button/navel (Only for Saline implants).

The planes where the implants can be placed under the chest may be behind the gland or the muscle. The surgeon is the best person to suggest where should the implants be placed depending on certain factors that are best discussed after the physical examination.

Most Common Reasons

• When a woman feels that her chests are too small for her body.
• When clothes fit perfectly at the hips but are loose on the top.
• When one wants to have a shapely figure while wearing a swim-suit or low neckline dresses and have firm chests.
• When one wants to regain the pre-pregnancy shape of the body.
• When one suffers from Poland Syndrome where one chest is absent or very small in comparison to the other chest.

Types of Implants

There have never been more choices for Breast implants. The following options are available, depending on your medical history, body shape and aesthetic goals:

• Silicone Breast implants (gel-filled): These are the most commonly used Breast implants throughout the world. They are pre-filled with soft silicone gel in a silicone shell.
• Silicone Breast implants (cohesive gel): These are pre-filled implants also called as gummy-bear or form-stable implants. The silicone gel used in these implants is more form-stable.
• Saline Breast implants: These implants have sterile salt water filled in them instead of silicone. They may be pre-filled or may be inflated after the implant has been placed in the pocket of the chest, hence the incision used for their placement is smaller than the silicone implant.

How Do I Prepare?

Once you have had a consult with Dr Sharmistha Bhattacharyya, you would most likely be advised:

• A baseline mammogram or an ultrasound of the chests
• To quit smoking or at least stop it a couple of weeks before and after the surgery.
• To stop taking any blood thinners if you take it or to stop certain drugs that cause blood thinning.
• To keep up the water intake.

Implant with Fat

In this method, the fat from one's own body (e.g. the thighs, the abdomen or the buttock) is used. The fat is harvested by the method of liposuction, filtered and purified for injection and the fat is inserted at different planes of the chest through injections. This can be considered a virtually scar-less technique. A chest lift may be combined with any of these procedures if the chests are droopy and need a lift as well as volume.

Are Breast Implants Safe?

The USFDA has approved the usage of silicone implants in chest enhancement surgeries. It is important for women having Breast implants to know that although the implants last quite long, it may need to be replaced. One must stay in touch with her aesthetic surgeon to have periodic examinations and checks.

Limitations and Risks

Fortunately, significant complications from Breast implants are infrequent. Minor complications occur occasionally but do not affect the outcome. Major Breast implants complications are very unusual. Some of the potential complications are:

• Adverse reaction to anesthesia
• Hematoma or seroma
• Infection and bleeding
• Changes in sensation
• Capsular contracture
• Implant rupture

Implants and ALCL

The USFDA and the Institute of Medicine still believe that Breast implants are fairly safe and effective. In rare cases, women with Breast implants may be at an increased risk of BI-ALCL. This is not chest cancer and neither is it a cancer of the chest tissue. It is cancer arising in the capsule of the implant and is a very rare type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. This can be easily detected and is highly treatable in the majority. Women with Breast implant should continue their routine chest examinations as recommended for other women.

To avail yourself of the benefits of breast augmentation surgery, +91 96672 07009 Book a consultation with the expert Dr Sharmistha Bhattacharyya.