Contents
- Myth: Surgery provokes the development of breast cancer.
- Myth: There are visible scars on the breast after surgery.
- Myth: You can’t breastfeed with implants.
- Myth: Implants need to be replaced after 10 years.
- Myth: Rehabilitation after breast augmentation is long and painful.
- Myth: Over time, implants can sag or deteriorate.
- Myth: Stretch marks can appear if the implant is incorrectly selected.
- Myth: The implant can rupture and the contents spill out. And also the displacement of the implant is possible
- Myth: You can’t sleep on your stomach with fake breasts.
- Myth: Breasts lose sensitivity after surgery.
- Myth: You can’t fly with implants in an airplane, they can burst.
Today, plastic surgery is one of the most controversial and dynamically developing areas of medicine. Myths, rumors. All this cannot be avoided, especially in such a delicate topic as plastic surgery on the breast. The editorial staff of Woman’s Day asked to figure out where is the truth and where is fiction, a candidate of medical sciences, a full member of the Russian Society of Plastic Reconstructive Aesthetic Surgeons (ROPREH), a certified member of the European Society of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (IPRAS), the author of numerous scientific publications Shikhirman Eduard Vadimovich.
Myth: Surgery provokes the development of breast cancer.
Reality: Today it is believed that the predisposition to cancer is transmitted genetically. Correct implant placement does not in any way increase or decrease the possibility of oncology.
An implant is a bio-inert material, it only creates volume and shape. But any injury to the glandular tissues can be the impetus for the emergence of neoplasms. If the implant is installed under the muscle and the gland remains intact, then it has nothing to do with the development of such a disease.
Myth: There are visible scars on the breast after surgery.
Reality: Today, breast prosthetics is the most well-established operation in plastic surgery.
When the implant is installed, only cosmetic scars remain. When prosthetics of the mammary glands, they can be located in several places: along the areola line, in the folds under the breast or in the armpit area.
The length of the scar is standard, as the size must be such that it does not deform the implant and that its filling remains intact. The size of the access is usually 4–5 cm, and it does not matter where it is located. Within 10-12 months, it becomes almost invisible if the technology is followed.
Myth: You can’t breastfeed with implants.
Reality: Can. The modern technique involves installation under the pectoralis major muscle, which is located several “floors” below the mammary gland. Implants have nothing to do with its functioning at all. The implant only changes the size and shape of the breast.
Myth: Implants need to be replaced after 10 years.
Reality: Change is only necessary according to indications. There is a theory that implants need to be replaced after a certain amount of time, but this is not the case. For example, I work only with high-quality and safe implants, I have been observing my patients, to whom they have been installed, for 15 years and I do not see any indications for their replacement.
There are studies in which more than 150 women are included, followed for over 000 years after breast augmentation with Mentor implants, and more than 10% of them are happy with their decision to enlarge their breasts.
In my memory, implants change in those cases when a woman decided to change the size of the implant or when there was an injury that violated its integrity. There was even such a story in Israel, which was written about in the news: a bomb exploded in the courtyard of a residential building, one of the fragments got stuck in a silicone implant and thereby saved a woman’s life. In such a case, of course, a replacement is necessary!
Myth: Rehabilitation after breast augmentation is long and painful.
Reality: Rehabilitation after surgery is 30 days of wearing special elastic underwear. Soreness may be present during the first days after surgery, as it is a surgical injury.
As after any operation, painful sensations arise, which are relieved by conventional analgesics in the hospital.
Myth: Over time, implants can sag or deteriorate.
Reality: Implants cannot deteriorate, because the shelf life of silicone is about 200 years. As for sagging, if the implant is selected and installed correctly, then you can not think about sagging breasts.
If it is placed under the skin or under the gland and is large in size, heavy for this breast, then, of course, soft tissues can stretch, and then the shape will not be so beautiful.
Myth: Stretch marks can appear if the implant is incorrectly selected.
Reality: Stretch marks can appear if the implant is installed or fitted incorrectly. If it is installed not under the muscle, but under thin tissues: under the skin or under the fascia of the breast.
But again, it all depends on the tissue itself, on the structure of the patient’s skin. What are stretch marks? Stretch marks are striae, intradermal scars that occur during lactation: if it actively occurs and there is a lot of milk, the skin does not have time to stretch and intradermal tears may occur.
If the implant is too large and heavy and placed under the surface tissue, it is unlikely, but stretch marks may occur.
Myth: The implant can rupture and the contents spill out. And also the displacement of the implant is possible
Reality: Even if you cut a modern implant with a knife, for example, Mentor, nothing will come out of there. There is a gel inside the prosthesis that does not flow.
If an injury occurs, firstly, the silicone does not leak out, and secondly, the implant is covered with a thin fibrous membrane: any foreign body, even bioinert like silicone, is limited by the body to a thin connective tissue capsule.
Therefore, if an implant rupture occurs, the silicone will remain inside the capsule. Of course, in this case, the implant will need to be replaced. But nothing pathological for the life and health of the patient will arise.
Displacement of the implant can occur in cases where the operation was performed incorrectly, if the pocket for the implant is not formed correctly, the postoperative recommendations are not followed, or postoperative trauma is received, if the implants are not round, but anatomical: they can rotate and move.
There are a great many reasons, it is simply necessary that the operation is performed technologically correctly, the implants are correctly selected and all postoperative recommendations are followed. Then nothing will happen to them.
Myth: You can’t sleep on your stomach with fake breasts.
Reality: After a while, it is possible, but, of course, not immediately after the operation. After a month and a half, you can sleep on your stomach and on your side.
Myth: Breasts lose sensitivity after surgery.
Reality: On the contrary, it is believed that sensitivity increases after surgery because the number of tactile receptors increases. The skin straightens out on the implant, and accordingly, the number of tactile receptors increases.
Myth: You can’t fly with implants in an airplane, they can burst.
Reality: This is a big misconception. Try to take the implant with you on the plane, nothing will happen to it: this is not a capsule with gas, which changes its density when the pressure changes.
Nothing happens with implants on the plane, on the train, or under water: they are installed to make your life brighter and richer, and not to limit you in your desires.