How Do I Choose The Ideal Breast Implant For Me?
Breast augmentation (breast enhancement) is the most commonly performed plastic surgery procedure in the United States and shows no signs of slowing down. The procedure has evolved greatly over the last 30 years in types of implants, location of implant, incision location, incision length, recovery, and cost.
To achieve the ideal breast augmentation result a careful and in-depth discussion between surgeon and patient must take place. Among the variety of breast augmentation issues that must be discussed, breast implant type is perhaps the most important.
Below is a review of the breast implant types and information on how to choose the ideal breast implant type.
What are the different types of breast implants?
There are three main types of breast implants:
-Saline
-Round Silicone
-Shaped Silicone (aka gummy bear, form stable, or anatomic breast implant)
For each type of breast implant there are various sizes, textured surface versus smooth, and different ratio of widths versus heights (i.e. for a given volume the implant can be wide and flat or narrow with more projection).
What are the benefits of each type of breast implants?
-Saline: least cost, smallest incision to place, can be placed via any of the known incision types, deflation is known immediately if it occurs.
-Round silicone: most commonly used implant type in the world. It provides a soft and natural breast shape using an incision comparable to that if a saline implant. Can be placed by all except belly button incision. No problems with rotation. Middle level cost.
-Shaped silicone: arguably provides the most natural breast shape. Can be used for very thin patients even on top of the muscle with great results.
What are the drawbacks of each type of breast implants?
-Saline: least “natural” look and feeling for a given size implant. Has the highest chance of visible or palpable rippling.
-Round silicone: since it often provides the “middle” type of benefits it can be considered to have the “middle” type of drawbacks regarding cost, breast shape, and limitations of patient use.
-Shaped silicone: longest incision requirement, chance of implant rotation, highest cost.
In general, if money is not a critical factor in making the decision, thin patients benefit from shaped silicone implants, while patients with more breast tissue often get a comparable result from a round silicone implant.
This patient underwent breast augmentation using shaped silicone implants placed under the muscle via a breast fold incision.