Massaging after breast augmentation is a great way to help reduce the risk of capsular contracture, encourage tissues to heal properly, and help ensure your results look soft and natural. Typically massage should be performed one week after the breast implant procedure for best results; too soon may harm, rather than help healing, while starting later might not allow optimal time to stretch tissues before they may start to harden.
Combination procedures, reconstructive surgeries, and some surgical methods for breast augmentation often merit special consideration, so before you use any of these suggested techniques, make sure to check in with your doctor or doctor’s staff to learn their recommendations for timing and techniques. Many surgical centers are happy to demonstrate safe techniques to follow after your procedure.
Top Techniques
- Compression: This type of massage involves using your palm to apply pressure on each breast; keep pressing in one area, until tissues feel pressed or stretched (slight discomfort is normal, but avoid pressing too hard, especially during early stages of healing). Repeat in another area. Like most techniques, this method can be repeated several times a day as long as you are gentle and do not feel too much discomfort.
- Displacement: Keep your palm on the center of the implant and then start rotating outward to exert some pressure toward the outer corners of the breast; the goal is to massage the tissue in all four quadrants around the implant. Hold the breast implants in each position for a few seconds before moving on to another area.
- Lymph drainage massage: Healthy circulation is key to effective healing, so while compression and displacement techniques focus on creating pressure on the tissues directly around the implant, this method aims to increase circulation directly below the skin. Lymph massage usually involves a gentle, circular pressure stimulating the tissue around the skin. Effective lymph massage is simple, and can often help minimize swelling and encourage damaged tissues to heal faster.
- Squeezing: Instead of focusing on just one area, this technique emphasizes pressure on the breast as a whole. As its name suggests, this breast implant massage technique involves squeezing of the breast by gripping it firmly and then elevating it higher. Make sure the implant is held in this position for some time. Repeat the process as necessary. Because this technique involves more noticeable manipulation of the breast tissues, make sure to keep the pressure steady and controlled, and stop if you feel noticeable discomfort.
Dr. David Sayah is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who specializes in natural plastic surgery results. His practice is devoted to providing excellent care using innovative techniques in plastic surgery such as endoscopic breast augmentation, state of the art lasers and minimally invasive facelifts. He believes that a healthy lifestyle involves diet, exercise, and preventive medicine including skincare measures. This multidisciplinary approach involves in-house internal medicine physician, nutritionist, exercise physiologist, and lifestyle coach who together with Dr. Sayah develop total beauty and health in his patients.
