Breast augmentation by Dr. Benjamin Lam offers more than a lift to one’s self-esteem. The simple, safe, and effective methods used by Dr. Benjamin Lam can during breast augmentation surgery bring out an inner vibrancy and confidence that has been waiting to emerge. With over 20,000,000 delighted women taking a step toward self-improvement each year, you only need to survey your friends, coworkers, or acquaintances to discover women who are glad they stepped forward. Start your research into what it takes for you to blossom forth with a more attractive and proportioned looking body by making a complimentary consultative breast augmentation appointment with Dr. Lam at his practice in Bucks County PA.
What is Breast Augmentation?
Breast augmentation is a surgery that is performed in order to increase breast size and/or fix breast asymmetry. Breast augmentation surgery is ideal for women who want larger breasts, as well as those who want to restore the breast volume that is often lost as a result of pregnancy or significant weight loss. Breasts can be enlarged with breast implants or by fat transplantation. A breast augmentation is not a substitute for mastopexy, also called a breast lift.
Breast Augmentation Procedure
Prior to your procedure, you’ll discuss with Dr. Lam various choices you’ll need to make about your procedure, such as implant choice, incision location, and whether to place the implants atop of beneath the chest muscle.
During your surgery, Dr. Lam makes the incisions in your chosen location and then creates pockets for the implants. If you’ve opted for saline implants, he places the implants empty and they are then filled in place. This allows Dr. Lam to adjust the size as desired. Silicone implants are filled and sealed at the factory, so they are put into place already filled. Dr. Lam then checks for balance, symmetry, and other aesthetic concerns and closes the incisions.
Types of Breast Implants
Breast implant choice has typically been a choice between saline and silicone implants, but there are a couple of other options now that merit their own description. All implant shells are made from medical-grade silicone.
Saline implants are filled with sterile saline solution. Saline implants have the advantage of being filled once in place, so they require smaller incisions than those required with larger silicone implants. The general consensus is that saline implants don’t feel as close to natural breast tissue as do silicone implants. In the case of rupture, however, the body simply absorbs the saline solution. Still, the implant shell will need to be removed, so revision surgery will be required.
Silicone implants are filled with medical-grade silicone gel. The silicone gel used in today’s implants is far more cohesive than that used in the 80s. What does this mean? Today’s gel tends to stay together, rather than dispersing. So, when modern silicone implants rupture, the gel tends to stay within the implant shell rather than entering the breast pocket. Silicone implants are considered to feel more like natural breast tissue than saline implants.
There are two newer implant options that are technically silicone and saline, but they are different enough to separate them out here. One is the gummy bear implant. These silicone implants are made of highly cohesive silicone gel that will not move out of the shell, even if the implant is cut in half. Gummy bear implants are not round, but made in a teardrop shape.
The “Ideal” implant is a brand name for a saline implant that is made with a different method. Rather than a single shell, Ideal implants are made of a series of nested shells. They have two pockets that hold silicone solution. This construction method is thought to create saline implants that feel more like silicone implants.
Breast Augmentation Recovery
Patients are surprised that their recovery from augmentation surgery is not more difficult. Many equate the feeling as to what it feels like after a hard chest workout in the gym. For the first two or three days, you will experience some pain and discomfort, but this is totally manageable. Your chest will feel tight. This is normal, as your implants need to settle into place just a bit. Your breasts may appear too high initially, but this is also temporary as they settle.
Most patients can return to work in four or five days. Non-impact activity can resume in about a week, with impact exercise available again in about one month. You can return to upper body-specific exercise in six weeks.