You just got breast implants, but you want to go bigger? At Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Institute, we see many patients about going bigger in their breasts, even after already receiving a breast augmentation. After recovering from a recent breast augmentation, many patients decide that they would like a breast augmentation revision to go bigger.
This is a revision that we do often at Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Institute, enhancing the already enhanced breast sizes of women who just received a breast augmentation.
If you are wanting to go bigger, then you are looking at a breast implant revision surgery. There are a few questions you should be asking your surgeon before you commit to another breast augmentation surgery. The first question is if you have waited enough time between your recent breast augmentation and the desired breast augmentation revision to go bigger?
Your primary breast revision can take 6 months up to a year to recover and heal fully. Although you may feel ready to revisit the operating theater, do not be in too much of a rush. You want to wait that 6 months to a year so your breast pocket stretches out and you will be able to fit a larger implant.
The second question is how much bigger can you go realistically. The increase in the breast implant size is dependent on a few points. To begin, it is necessary to note that your implant needs to be centralized on your nipple.
Simply put, the size of your new, bigger implant is dependent on the nipple to crease distance. Your nipple to inframammary crease distance dictates how big your ideal implant can be.
This distance must equal the radius of your implant chosen. The good news is that the 6 month-1 year waiting period will allow that distance to increase so there is a new size that your breast capsule can carry.
What also happens is that your breasts lateralize and push out over time. Your original breast augmentation likely stretched out your inferior breast pole and thus that nipple to crease distance, which will help accommodate a bigger implant.
We use the capsule that is already formed and manipulate it to accommodate the new, larger implant. You can have a capsulotomy- to accommodate a bigger implant for lateralization that happens when breasts, to stretch the upper area of the breast.
You may also require a capsulectomy- to significantly increase the size of your capsule, or if needed to open up the capsule medially. When lateralization is severe or if the capsule is needed to sew the capsule down, a capsulorrhaphy is performed.
In rare cases, we see Symmastia, which is when the breast pockets are too close together, pushing together, and we need to separate the two breast pockets.
As we mentioned above, based on the distance, inframammary crease to nipple areolar, the implant radius relies on this. The inframammary crease can stretch out, stretching out the distance to the nipple areolar, then it is appropriate for you to come back and upsize. You want to see how much longer that distance is to see how much bigger they can go.
Part of that process also includes manipulation based on the scar tissue capsule that has already formed. You want to use the already formed capsule and manipulate it as needed. Many breast implants lateralize, if minimal-moderate, a bigger implant will fit better but you need to incise the medial area. If moderate-severe, you may need to open up the medial capsule. We as surgeons need to gauge how big your new implant is and make sure it fits that distance.
Your new implant needs a larger volume to fit it. The upper radius is also accommodated as necessary for the breast implant to fit. Sometimes, if the nipples are low, you must get a breast aug with something that is on the smaller to moderate size, so the breast implant is centered.
This is because the breast implant needs to sit on an inframammary crease and the center of the breast implant needs to center on the nipple-areolar. Basically, we modify the original capsule to accommodate the new implant. If it is not centralized, the implant can move around.
The second surgery entails a bigger increase than the present distance of your nipple to crease cannot accommodate. If you are wanting a bigger implant than your distance can accommodate, then you need a simultaneous breast lift with breast implant augmentation revision.
A breast lift relies on that crease to nipple-areolar distance. Remember, a breast lift is performed to both remove sagging breast tissue and also to lift the nipple so that the new nipple to crease distance will be greater and match the radius of the new implant.
How much we lift you are defined by the new implant and its new radius. We perform a vertical mastopexy that will eliminate sagging of the breast mound and elevate the nipple to accommodate the new implant size.
So if you are ready to have a breast augmentation revision to go bigger, then know that your surgeon will want you to recover over that 6 months to a year period, so your surgeon can manipulate your formed capsule and possibly do a lift if you desire a larger breast implant then your capsule can accommodate.
Please see our 35-year-old patient who waited 1 year for her breast augmentation revision to go bigger.
