Getting breast implants is exciting. The decision to undergo breast augmentation surgery is one that’s usually made after months, or even years, of thinking about it. In most cases, women enjoy their results for many years. Occasionally, however, we see women who need breast augmentation revision surgery at our Denver practice.
The reasons vary as to why someone may need or want revision surgery after a previous breast augmentation procedure. In this blog post, we’ll take at look at those reasons, briefly describe what the procedure involves, and explain why it’s important to choose a breast augmentation specialist to perform the revision surgery.
Why Get Revision Surgery?
Breast implants are not designed to last for a lifetime, so at some point many women who have been happy with their results will end up getting breast augmentation revision surgery to replace older implants. Other reasons you may need a revision procedure include:
- Complications that cause discomfort or pain: The most common complication that occurs after an initial breast augmentation procedure is called capsular contracture. Scar tissue naturally forms around all breast implants, creating a capsule. If this capsule begins to tighten, it can create a problem. Mild capsular contracture limits the movement of the implant and can look unnatural. More severe occurrences can be painful.
- Implants need to be re-positioned: Implants sometimes slide too low on the breasts, below the natural fold, creating an unnatural appearance called “double bubble.” In other cases, implants may have been incorrectly placed during the first surgery and need to be moved. These are relatively rare complications that require revision surgery to correct.
- A desire to upgrade: This is especially common for women who have saline implants and want to switch to silicone gel implants. A significant majority of breast augmentation patients now choose silicone gel over saline implants because they tend to look and feel more like natural breasts.
- Replacing a ruptured implant: Ruptured saline implants are immediately noticeable because the breast looks deflated. Silicone cohesive gel implants are less prone to cracking or rupturing, and you may not even know it until it’s detected during a routine MRI exam.
- Wanting a different implant size: We offer VECTRA® 3D imaging to give patients a realistic idea of how they’ll look with different sizes of implants, but not all practices have a 3D imaging system. Women sometimes decide that they want smaller or larger implants, as noted in this article on VeryWellHealth.com.
Before & After Revision Breast Surgery
Other Reasons for Revision Surgery
In some cases, women who have already had breast augmentation develop “boob greed,” something we talked about in an earlier blog post. We discourage patients from getting excessively large implants that we know, based on our expertise, won’t provide the desired aesthetic outcome.
As we wrote in the previous post: “A patient will make a poor implant size choice when she ignores her true wants and needs in the beginning of the sizing process. When a patient allows other opinions around implant size to determine her final choice, the result never ends well. We are in the business of helping women feel better about themselves.”
Choose Your Surgeon Carefully
Breast revision surgery is more complicated than the initial breast augmentation procedure, partly because of the presence of scar tissue. So, it’s important that patients find the best-qualified breast augmentation specialist available. At our Denver practice, all 3 of the plastic surgeons are experienced and highly trained in breast surgeries. Review their online photo gallery to see actual patients before & after revision breast surgery.
If you think you may want or need breast augmentation revision surgery and are looking in the Denver area for a surgeon, contact us to schedule a consultation using the online form or call us at (720) 279-1926 to set up an appointment.
Leave a Reply