Information on Breast Augmentation from Our Practice Serving San Jose, Sacramento, and All of Northern California

Dr. Robert Lowen is an experienced and talented plastic surgeon who is committed to patient education and safety. He helps women considering breast augmentation understand the many aspects of the procedure so they can make an informed decision that is right for them. Use the links below to learn more about breast augmentation, or contact our practice serving Sacramento, San Jose, and all of Northern California today to schedule a personal consultation.

 

 

Breast Augmentation Guide

The surgical procedure to increase the size of your breasts is called augmentation mammoplasty. Disproportion between the size of your breasts or torso can cause an imbalance in the appearance of your figure which may lead to difficulty in fitting into certain clothes or clothing styles and affect the way you feel about yourself.

Using current techniques of implant placement and various implant types, it is possible to selectively change the shape of parts of your breast as well as increase the size during the breast augmentation surgery.

A woman may have small breasts because she has inherited a familial tendency or as a result of shrinkage after pregnancy. In the first case, there has been failure to develop breast tissue and the skin envelope has never been stretched.

After pregnancy and lactation, the enlarged breast and glandular tissue shrinks or involutes, leaving the skin stretched out and the overall volume perhaps even less than before pregnancy. With repeated pregnancies, the breast and skin become more stretched out.

Either breast type may be augmented, but the nature of the implants and techniques used may differ. In the first case, the tight skin envelope may limit the size of the implant that can be placed.

In the latter case, it is important to choose an implant and technique that will adequately fill the skin envelope and support the tissues. Significant improvement after the breast augmentation procedure can be expected in either case.

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Making an Informed Decision

Breast augmentation has been performed for more than 30 years, attesting to its safety and effectiveness. It is important for any woman contemplating breast augmentation to be informed of the possible risks as well as the benefits, and of the trade-offs with respect to incision placement, implant choices, and long-term results.

Breast augmentation is a surgical procedure and as with all surgical procedures some risks, although small, always exist. Hopefully, after reviewing the breast augmentation information provided by our center serving patients from Sacramento to San Jose, you will have a good understanding of the factors involved and will be able to make an informed decision.

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The Normal Breast and Options for Improvement: About Breasts

It is normal in every woman to have slight discrepancies between the two breasts. This means that the level of the nipple and areola (pigmented area around the nipple) may not be at the same height on the chest wall, or the nipples may be at different distances from the midline. One breast is frequently larger than the other, and small differences in contour are common. This is perfectly normal.

In addition, it is common for there to be differences in size and shape of the underlying rib cage which will affect the direction the breast appears to point when viewed from the front. These differences are not eliminated by breast augmentation, and some asymmetries, normal and present before augmentation, will persist after augmentation.

Attention to these differences and compensating for them as much as possible with surgical technique and/or the use of different sized implants or fill-volumes, can usually minimize these normal asymmetries.

Breast augmentation has traditionally meant taking the given shape of the breast and making it bigger, providing an increased volume based on the size of the implant, but this does not always result in the nicest shape to the breast. When the goal is to provide the most esthetically pleasing breast shape as well as increasing the volume, it is necessary to use implants and techniques that can affect both shape and size. Using implants currently available, it is possible to more predictably achieve specific changes in breast contour and size during the breast augmentation procedure.

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Helping You Select the Best Alternatives

During your consultation, an analysis will be made that takes into account your particular breast characteristics in terms of shape, size, skin elasticity or tightness, and previous history of changes related to weight gain/loss or pregnancy.

Then you will be given a choice of several different types of implants and three different locations for incisions, and a recommendation on which would be most likely to produce the size and shape of breast that you want.

With currently available breast augmentation techniques and implant options, a natural-appearing breast, both in and out of clothing, can be achieved, even after a significant increase in size.

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Augmentation and Breast Cancer: Implants Do Not Cause Breast Cancer

There are many studies that show that the incidence of breast cancer is neither increased nor decreased by the presence of breast implants. Delays in diagnosis could result in breast cancer being detected at a more advanced stage, but with regular breast self-examination and mammography this should not occur.

Having a breast implant does not change the recommendations of the American Cancer Society for breast cancer screening methods and mammography, but does mean that breast augmentation patients need to go to a mammographer that is highly skilled and experienced in reading mammograms of women with implants.

Breast self-examination is performed in the usual way, and because the implant is entirely underneath the breast tissue, not in the breast tissue, there is no interference with palpation of the breast.

With respect to mammography, it is important to know, however, that the presence of an implant can interfere with imaging of all of the breast tissue. This is because the density of saline is greater than that of fatty tissue, resulting in some difficulty in imaging the entire breast.

Usually multiple views are needed, at least three rather than the standard two views. The Ecklund technique, pulling the breast forward and away from the implant, is recommended.

To learn more about breast augmentation, patients from San Jose to Sacramento and throughout Northern California can contact our plastic surgery center to schedule a personal consultation with Dr. Robert Lowen.

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To learn more about breast augmentation, please contact our practice serving San Jose, Sacramento, and all of Northern California today.