You're not happy with your breasts. For whatever reason you're convinced they're too small, too saggy, lop-sided, or one is bigger than the other and you are considering surgery to resolve the problem. The most popular method for breast augmentation is to place an implant, either containing silicone or salty water into the space directly below the breast or under a chest muscle. There are various routes to reach the position for the implant, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. Depending on what the surgeon recommends, the implants are either in the shape of a tear drop or rounded. Before considering surgery at all though, you must carefully consider if you're feeling low and unhappy with your self image because of your breasts, or whether a degree of unhappiness is actually what is making you dislike your body. If unhappiness is the primary problem, then surgery won't work and you may actually feel worse after the event.
Surgical Methods and Potential Complications of Surgery
Over the years, surgeons have tried various methods to increase the size of the breast. Injecting material like silicon or parafin wax directly into the breast was soon abandoned. Surgeons also tried injecting the persons own tissue, usually fat, but this was unpredictable and sometimes caused scarring. Medical therapy using a suction pump has also been tried by some patients but the reults are unpredictable and may not be long lasting.
Because of the lack of success of these methods, inmplants have benn the mainstay of breast augmentation since the 1960's. During the first few years of implant surgery these mostly contained silicone, but some patients reported complications from leakage of the silicone into the breast tissue itself, migration of the silicone towards the armpit and even reactions to the silicone itself. After these reports, silicone implants were temporarily removed from use in the U.S.A but this has never happened in Europe.
Some of the reported problems with silicone implants led to a renewed interest in implants containing normal saline (salty water). These have the advantage that if they leak, the fluid they contain is just absorbed naturally into the body. There were initilal problems with the implants which caused them to leak and deflate in around 10% of users. Since this time, manufacturers have improved them, in particularly the mechinism for intoducsing the normal saline into the implant to regulate it's size.
©Stadn Ltd
Talk to one of our live doctors about Breast Augmentation now on
0906 665 8000
Calls cost £1.50 per minute from a BT landline. 24 hrs 7 days a week. Callers must have bill payer's permission and be over 18. All calls are recorded but you do not have to give your name. All Doctors are GMC registered and either fully qualified GPs or post membership hospital specialists. Not for emergency use, diagnosis or prognosis. Not designed to replace a face to face consultation with a medical professional, and any callers taking such advice in isolation do so at their own risk. In the case of a medical emergency, dial 999. Calls last a maximum of 20 minutes.
