Breast Augmentation

Many women feel that their breasts do not match their overall body physique. Breast augmentation is one of the most common aesthetic surgical procedures in the United States of America. Small breast size may be due to a lack of normal breast development or to a decrease of breast volume following pregnancy or menopause. This procedure is designed to give the female patient a fuller breast.

Every effort is made not to alter your breast tissue during a breast enlarging procedure. This operation is performed by creating a pocket behind your existing breast tissue, by placing an implant in the space, and by simply pushing your breast tissue forward, thus enlarging the appearance of the breast. Most patients have been exceedingly pleased with this operative procedure, even though life-long follow up and the need for subsequent surgical procedures are the rule and not the exception.

The increase in breast size will be limited by the tightness of your tissues, but significant improvement can usually be achieved.  As unfair as this might seem, the smaller your breasts are to begin with, the smaller a breast implant will have to be selected during surgery, simply because there will not be any room to put in bigger implants!  On occasion, especially in patients who begin with a very small breast, a secondary procedure to insert larger implants may become desirable a year or more later, after tissues have had an opportunity to stretch.  The fees for all secondary procedures will be the patient’s responsibility. Options regarding implant size and type will be discussed with you before the procedure and every effort will be made to create an optimal breast for you, but the final determination of an appropriate implant has to rest with the surgeon, and this final decision cannot be made until the pocket has been dissected during your surgical procedure.

It is important to understand that no person is perfectly symmetrical from one side to the other, even before a surgical procedure. Every attempt will be made during surgery to minimize your side-to-side dissimilarities, but such differences are natural and always persist to some degree, even after the most successful operation. And it is not unusual to have a greater degree of asymmetry after surgery than existed before implants were placed - this occurs because the formation of the scar layers around the implants and how the implants “settle” is not under the patient's or surgeon's control!

There is no evidence that breast surgery alters the possibility of developing breast cancer. Mammography and MRI techniques have improved in recent years. In spite of these advances, there is a theoretical risk of compromised detection of early breast cancer following an augmentation mammoplasty. If a cancer were to develop, its detection by mammography could be made more difficult, depending on the location of the cancer within the breast, the position and size of the implant and the type of implant employed, and an MRI may be recommended.  Regardless of your decision to have an augmentation mammoplasty or not, it will still be necessary for you to examine yourself monthly for breast lumps and to undergo mammography as suggested by your personal physician. All women, whether or not they are contemplating breast surgery, are encouraged to obtain a baseline mammogram at age 35 (or even sooner if recommended by your gynecologist because of a family history of breast cancer) and a yearly mammogram or MRI after the age of 40.

Normal breast function should not be altered by an augmentation procedure. Although not all women are able to breast feed, even without a breast operation, this procedure should not alter the ability to breast feed should this become desirable later. One cannot, however, rule out possible effects on future pregnancy and nursing, particularly when incisions are placed around the areolae (“nipple incision.”)

The following information has been prepared to familiarize you with facts about breast enlargement. You are requested to read this information thoroughly and to discuss any questions, which might arise with your surgeon before proceeding with the surgical procedure known as breast augmentation. You are also requested to keep this form as a reference in the postoperative period.