What should you do when you no longer like your breast implants? Conceivably, you underwent a breast augmentation for a reason, but sometimes those reasons aren’t as long-lasting as the results. While it’s not necessarily common that breast augmentation patients want to later change the size of their implants, neither is it exactly rare. Ultimately, you’ll have to listen to your body in order to determine the best possible way to proceed.
Changing Your Mind About Breast Implants
Breast implants are never meant to last forever. The FDA usually gives each implant type a “shelf-life,” although sometimes they do last quite a ways beyond that. So what should you do when you no longer like your breast implants? Patients who find themselves in this situation have a few different options.
And we do want to make sure to point out that most breast augmentation patients are incredibly happy with their results for a good long time. Those patients are quite happy with the outcome of their surgery. Indeed, breast augmentation has a remarkably high satisfaction rate among plastic surgery procedures.
But people do change over time. And breast implants do have a recommended shelf life. For that reason, it’s pretty common for patients to re-evaluate their breast implants later in life (often after getting decades of enjoyment out of their results). What should you do when you no longer like your breast implants? Most patients will be able to choose from several different options.
Do You Want to Replace Your Implant
If you don’t like your breast implants, the first question you should ask yourself is whether you want to replace those implants or not. If you want to replace your implants, you’ll likely be interested in a procedure called breast implant revision surgery. This is a procedure that’s intended to remove one set of implants and replace them with another.
There are several reason why you might wish to replace your breast implants:
- There was a defect or error with the first set of implants; often this happens when patients or surgeons try to cut corners in order to save costs (for example, when a patient uses so-called plastic surgery tourism to get a good deal).
- The patient finds the materials the implant was constructed from unsatisfactory. In these cases, the patient may switch from saline to silicone or vice versa. Most patients select silicone implants in the long run.
- The patient may want to downsize her implants. This often happens when patients become older and want an implant size that reflects the way their outlooks on life have changed. In other words, as patients get older, sometimes they want a look that’s a little more conservative.
- Patients might also want to increase the size of their implants. This happens in cases where, for whatever reason, a patient feels as though the final results could be larger, bolder, and more dramatic.
Whatever the reason you might have to replace your implant, you should feel confident that those reasons are legitimate. That doesn’t mean replacing your implants the way you want will always be easy or possible. But it does mean that if you feel something isn’t right – or something doesn’t reflect who you are – you should talk to a plastic surgeon about what your options might be.
What if You Want to Remove Your Implants
There are cases where patients simply want to remove their breast implants. Patients can have this particular desire for a wide variety of (usually very personal) reasons. In some cases, the implants themselves are past their prime. In other cases, the patient simply wants to go back to their original look.
This is usually achieved through a procedure called breast explant surgery. During a breast explant procedure, an incision is made along the breast and the implant is removed. Often, the same incision lines are used for the breast explant procedure as were originally used for the breast augmentation.
The breasts will then return to their normal size (or very close to their normal size). In some cases where breast explant surgery is performed, patients may also wish to undergo a breast lift procedure in order to make them look as youthful as possible.
Making the Right Choice for You
Whether you’re looking into a breast implant revision or breast explant surgery – or whether you want to stay with your current breast implants – will be and should be up to you. After all, it’s your body, so it’s essential that you’re making the choices that will be right for you.
Which means, as long as the procedure is safe and advised by your surgeon, there aren’t really wrong answers here. If you want to stick with your current breast size or go back to your old breast size – or go up a size, it’s all up to you.
So what should you do when you no longer like your breast implants? Well, it depends on why you don’t like them. But whatever the case may be, you will have plenty of options.
