What are the Pros and Cons of Breast Implants

Breast implants are one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries worldwide. Although common, there are still several considerations you must make before undergoing this procedure. In the efforts to achieve the best outcomes, it’s important to weigh out all the variables including cost, potential risks, and aftercare requirements involved.

Rather than resorting to breast implant removal down the road, whether you grow to dislike your implants or are experiencing complications, it’s important to review everything you can about breast implants ahead of time. Here are some of the top pros and cons of breast implants to consider.

Pros of Breast Implants

Improve your confidence

One of the main reasons women choose to undergo breast augmentation surgery is to improve their appearance and confidence. Some women who have smaller or disproportionate breasts may become embarrassed as they grow into adulthood. With every passing bathing suit season, the fear of being judged by someone can become overwhelming over time.

This may be especially true in women who once had fuller breasts before becoming pregnant. After having children, breasts tend to become deflated or saggy after breastfeeding. No matter the reason, breast implants may be just the answer you’ve been searching for. Many women report experiencing improvements in their self-esteem, happiness, and overall confidence with their appearance.

Implants can last you years

Another reason that breast implants are advantageous is their long-term durability. While neither silicone nor saline implants are meant to last forever, many women are able to get up to 10 years out of them without replacement or removal. For this reason, breast implants tend to make for a great investment.

On occasion, women choose to replace or remove their implants before their ‘expiration’ date. Some common reasons for this include leakages, natural changes in shape or placement, or for personal reasons such as increasing or decreasing the size of implants.

Breast surgeries are customizable

Breast augmentation is certainly not a one-size-fits-all procedure. Your personal treatment plan may be very different from that of another woman, and that’s ok! With all the options available to you in choosing the best breast implants, it’s important to do your research, confide in friends or family, and consult with an experienced plastic surgeon.

Following your initial consultation, you have the opportunity to choose a wide range of options making your breast implants completely customizable. Select between different implant materials (i.e. silicone, saline, etc.), a site of the incision to insert the implant (i.e. infra-mammary incision under the crease of the breast), and breast implant placement location (i.e. under the chest muscle, under the breast muscle, or a mix of the two options).

Improves your shape in clothing

Last but not least, a popular reason that women elect to get breast implants is based on their improved shape in clothing. Having too small or too saggy of breasts makes fitting into tops and blouses very difficult. This is especially true if your hips are curvier and you’re looking to create a more proportionate silhouette figure. Breast implants can help make shopping off the rack a breeze.

Cons of Breast Implants

Breast implants are expensive

When you first consider breast implants, you’re likely to also consider the cost that’s associated with it. Breast augmentation surgery is one of the many types of cosmetic surgeries that is unlikely to be covered by health insurance. On the lower end, this procedure will cost you around £5,000 and can climb to £15,000 or more.

The price depends on various features of the surgery including your implant material of choice, if breast lifts are involved, and any additional requirements are requested. While saving money is always helpful, breast implant procedures should never be “cheap”. If you find a plastic surgeon who has quoted you a surprisingly low price for this procedure, always look online for reviews before selecting their services.

Risk of complications

Regardless if you’ve spent the time to select a skilled, highly-trained plastic surgeon, there is still a risk of complications during or after surgery. While still rare, one of the more common risks of breast augmentation surgery is developing capsular contracture. This occurs when your immune system signals to attack the foreign implant resulting in breast pain, soreness, and tightness.

Other complications to breast augmentation surgery include anesthesia risks, bleeding or hemorrhaging, implant leakage or ruptures, loss of nipple sensation, and so on. It’s important to consider these risks and ensure you are a good candidate for surgery well-before. Some things you can do to improve your surgical outcomes are to eat healthy meals, quit smoking, exercise daily, and stay hydrated.

Need to take time off of work

No matter the size of implants you decide to get, you’ll need to prepare to take adequate time off work following surgery. This time off work to properly heal is essential to your recovery plan. Keep in mind that those who work in a laborious job, such as an emergency responder, may need to take more time than someone who is working at a desk job.

For the majority of cases, women report limited pain and describe having a “brief and manageable” recovery process. Depending on the person, it usually takes about 5-7 weeks to get back to general activities at a low intensity.

It’s important to follow the aftercare instructions provided by your surgeon. Making the most out of this time will improve your healing time immensely, not to mention reduce your chances of any postoperative complications such as infections, leakages, or ruptures.

Complicated mammogram readings

Depending on the type of surgical procedures you require, there is a chance it will complicate any future mammogram screenings. While breast implants won’t increase your risk of breast cancer, the presence of implants can cause difficulty reading the scanned images. On rare occasion, this may result in a misdiagnosis of breast cancer.

It’s important to address this with your mammography technologist to ensure they are aware you have implants before the appointment. This can help them decide if they need more images to get a more accurate reading at the time of your visit.