Breast Augmentation – Patient 299

A more than 17 year follow-up on a woman who is now in her 40’s but had a breast augmentation with us at the age of 24 with saline implants. She had per-areolar incisions with partial sub-pectoral placement of 300-325 filled to 305 on her left and 325 on her right. She continues to do well and just stopped in for an implant check in our office. Her case illustrates 3 important concepts of breast augmentation.

First, pick the right size but don’t use an overly large implant. She is 5’2” and 117 lbs and has not had issues with too much stretching of her tissues because we did use too large of an implant for her tissues. 17 years later she still looks good.

Second: Don’t keep the nipple piercing in after surgery ( or a tongue or vaginal piercing) because they may increase the risk of capsular contracture by allowing bacteria that lives in the nipple ducts/ mouth or vagina to get into the blood stream and travel to the implant, leading to biofilm and a capsular contracture. Her breasts remain soft after 17 years.

Third: One huge benefit of saline implants is not having to worry about a silent rupture- the implant will go flat when it eventually leaks. So it is nice to be able to tell her that her implants are fine without getting an MRI or an ultrasound as would be need at this point to check on the integrity of a silicone gel implant.