Removal of Breast Implants - What is involved
22nd February 2011Implant Removal / Replacement
Mr. Adrian Richards explains the reasons why one might consider Removal of Breast Implants, what it entails, and how the breasts are likely to appear after the surgery. For more information please call one of our fully qualified patient advisors on 01844 214362.Transcript
Removal of Breast Implants – What is Involved
Hello, my name is Adrian Richards. I’m a plastic and reconstructive surgeon and the founder, director and clinical leader of Aurora Clinics which is based here in the south of England. In this short video, I’m going to be talking a little bit about removal of breast implants, why you might want to have your implants removed, what it entails, and how your breasts are likely to appear after removal.
The first thing is why would you consider removal of implants. Many of my patients as they do grow a little bit older feel as if they would like the implants removed. They may not have a problem with the implants, but what may have seemed like a good idea when they were 20 may not seem like such a good idea when you’re 70. Remember, breast implants have been around a long time.
Now, removal of breast implants is not normally very difficult. We tend to use the same incision that was used before. So wherever your incision is, we tend to use the same one so you don’t have an extra scar. Your surgeon would basically go down, find your implants and remove them. Now, you never quite know what you’re going to find as a surgeon removing very old implants. They may be fine. Most patients actually don’t know what type of implants they’ve had inserted. Sometimes people tell me they’ve had saltwater, saline implants, and when I explore the area they’re silicone implants. Most patients won’t know whether they’re smooth walled implants or textured implants, and they almost certainly won’t know the make of the implant or the size of the implant if they had the implant inserted many years ago. This was because 20, 30 years I don’t think people were told quite as much information about their types of implants. Now if you do have an implant, we will give you lots of information about the type, make, shape, and size of your implants which you take away with you.
It’s always quite interesting to remove implants to see what sort of type of implant it is and whether they’re intact or not. Sometimes they may well not be intact. So when I explore the area, remove the implant, I might find that the capsule of the breast implant is intact, but within that capsule, enclosed within there, there may be some ruptured implant which I will remove. Your surgeon will remove all the breast implant material, the lining, and any silicone, wash the area out absolutely to remove all elements of the implant. That’s the capsule and any silicone that’s in there. Normally the implant will be intact so we can remove it all in one.
Patients often ask me, “How are my breasts going to look after removal of my breast implants?” What they’re worried about is that when you have the implants removed, the breasts are going to lose all their volume and be a bit lower than they were previously. Now, interestingly, this doesn’t actually seem to be as much of a problem as most people perceive. The reason for this, I think, over the years you do tend to develop more breast tissue yourself. Most breast implants used in the old days were quite small. So removing them actually often doesn’t create all that much difference in the breast. The breasts will be smaller, but they won’t look terrible. They won’t look deflated and saggy, which is most people’s concern.
So in summary, if you are considering having your implants removed, what I encourage you to do is think quite carefully about the reasons for having them removed, discuss with your surgeon the pros and cons of having them removed. But again, it’s a relatively simple procedure, won’t involve any more scarring than you’ve got already, and once you’ve had them removed, you’ll be back to normal tissue and you won’t have any remaining silicone implant there and you can carry on as normal. Also, if you do decide you would like to have your implants back in again at a later date, you need to wait three or four months to let everything to settle down and then you can have perhaps different, more modern, perhaps smaller implants inserted to restore some of the breast volume.
So I hope that has been informative. If you are considering this type of a surgery or would like to know any more about breast implant exchange, problems you can get with capsules, please have a look at the rest of the videos in this section of the website. Thanks very much for watching.