Breast Augmentation Revision – What Happens If Implants Don’t Drop?
Why would a breast implant have to drop? What happens after surgery to get them to move where they need to? What happens if they never fall to the expected placement on the chest wall? S. Larry Schlesinger, MD, FACS, a board certified plastic surgeon in Honolulu, Hawaii explains what happens after sub-pectoral breast augmentation, how to help them move into the correct position, and what happens if they never drop and require a new surgery.
Video transcript:
Hi, I’m Larry Schlesinger and I’m a board certified plastic surgeon from Honolulu, Hawaii. The question is: What do I do if my breast implants never settle down or as they say on RealSelf “Never drop and fluff”?
So what happens – implants are placed either through the areola, peri-areola, inframammary, or my favorite going through the armpit. And the implants in the subpectoral space are being pushed up by the muscle. What if the muscle keeps them up there or what if there’s some scar tissue that was never noticed by the surgeon that holds the implant up too high?
Very early, it’s important to wear either a bandeau or an ace wrap up here to force the implants down where you want them. And usually it’s not both, it’s just one and it’s the culprit.
It’s been my experience that about 80 percent of the time, with an ace wrap and some reasonable pressure, you can force the implants down to where you want them. However, every once in a while, it requires opening up the breast always through a peri-areolar incision because you get the most visualization. You open it up, you find out what the problem is, whether it’s a capsule, whether it’s bleeding, whatever it is and you put in a new implant. Never use the same implant because you lose your warranty and also there’s a potential danger of infection. So you put in a new implant and then you sew it back up and then always wear an ace wrap after that or a bandeau. Some kind of pressure to keep it in the new lower position that you wanted it in the first place.
Timewise, it depends on how much work you did. If you do a little bit of work then it’s a little bit of time. If you do a lot of work, then it’s a lot of time. But my best guess is on average, you’re driving your car at four days and you’re back at administrative work by five or six days, and back at physical work by six or seven days.
I’m Larry Schlesinger and I’m a board certified plastic surgeon from Honolulu, Hawaii. Aloha!