Breast Implants: Types, Surgery, Recovery & Risks (2024)

What are breast implants?

Breast implants are artificial devices (prostheses) surgically inserted into your breasts. Breast implants are silicone shells filled with either silicone gel or saline (sterile salt water).

Doctors called plastic surgeons insert breast implants. You may choose to receive breast implants following the loss of a breast to cancer. You may be a healthy person who wishes to change the shape or size of your breasts. Breast reconstruction is when a patient who has had breast cancer gets breast implants. Breast augmentation is when a healthy person receives breast implants to change the shape or size of their breasts. Breast augmentation is also known as a boob job.

Who gets breast implants?

Getting breast implants is a personal decision. Pursuing your wants and desires for your body can be very empowering.

To be considered for breast implants, you should:

• Be finished developing.
• Be in good physical health.
• Have realistic expectations.

Why do people get breast implants?

Many people who get breast implants wish to make the size of their breasts larger. You may want to enlarge the size of your breasts for many reasons, including:

• Restoring a previous breast size. Breasts can decrease in size after pregnancy, weight loss or aging.
• Correcting asymmetrical (different size or shape) breasts. Breast asymmetry is common, but it may be more prominent if you experience damage to the tissue in one of your breasts before you go through puberty.
• Restoring breasts after a mastectomy (breast removal). In women who have had their breasts removed because of cancer or any other serious health condition, breast implants restore feminine features and help them feel complete.
• Affirming your gender. Breasts can help you accurately express your gender identity.
• Boosting confidence. Breast implants can help improve your self-esteem and body image.

How common are breast implants?

In the United States, approximately 3.5 million people have breast implants. About 60% of breast implants contain silicone gel. Throughout the world, approximately 35 million people have breast implants.

What is the difference between breast augmentation and breast implants?

The terms “breast augmentation” and “breast implants” are often substituted for one another. Breast augmentation is any cosmetic surgical procedure that makes the size of your breasts larger. Breast implants are artificial devices (prostheses) surgically inserted into your breasts. So, breast augmentation refers to a series of procedures that make your breasts larger. Breast implants are silicone shells filled with saline solution or silicone gel that support breast augmentation procedures.

How long do new breast implants last?

New breast implants typically last about 10 years, but your experience may be different. The older that breast implants get, the more likely they are to rupture (break apart).

Signs of breast implant rupture may include changes in your breast size or shape, firmness or swelling. However, sometimes there is no sign that rupture has occurred.

Which type of breast implant feels the most natural?

Breast augmentation and breast implants have made an incredible amount of progress to yield natural-feeling results. Silicone breast implants tend to feel more natural than saline breast implants. However, silicone and saline breast implants can both feel natural, depending on the size of the breast before surgery and the position of their placement.

In submuscular placement, breast implants fit beneath your breast tissue and your chest muscles. As a result, you only feel your natural breast tissue on top of your breast implants.

In subglandular placement, breast implants fit between your breast tissue and chest muscles. If you have a lot of breast tissue, your breast implants will feel natural. However, if you don’t have a lot of breast tissue, your breast implants may not be wholly covered by breast tissue. As a result, your breast implants may not feel or look natural.

The type of shell can also determine how breast implants feel. Breast implant shells are smooth or textured. Smooth shells are thinner than textured shells, so they feel more natural than textured shells. Smooth shell breast implants also move more freely during activity, which is closer to how natural breast tissue moves.

A textured shell is thicker than a smooth shell. Textured breast implants feel coarser to the touch, like the rough side of a sponge. The coarse texture helps the implants stick to the breast tissue, making them less likely to rotate or move. Filled textured shells feel firmer than smooth shells.

Which type of breast implant looks the most natural?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a highly cohesive silicone gel breast implant for use in 2012. These implants are commonly called gummy bear breast implants. When cut in half, they retain their shape, similar to a gummy bear candy.

Breast implants also come in different shapes. Some breast implants may be round, like a doughnut without a hole. Others may look like a natural breast or a teardrop—rounder at the bottom and narrower at the top. As a result, they look more like natural breasts.

Round breast implants may have a smooth or textured shell. However, teardrop-shaped implants usually come with a textured shell only. Textured shells reduce the chance they will rotate and look unnatural.