Breast Enlargement – Questions from a Patient

Mr Adrian Richards answers questions from a patient regarding Breast Enlargement procedure and silicone implants. We always like to have our patients informed regarding the procedure they are considering. For information on Breast Augmentation surgery, related videos, before and after pictures, cost, recovery and scarring visit our information page or call one of our dedicated patient advisors on 01844 214362.

Breast Enlargement – Questions from a Patient

Hello, my name’s Adrian Richards. I’m the Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics, and today in this short video I thought I’d just go through a few questions that I’m often asked by patients. In fact, a patient brought me this sheet of paper in today just to make sure that I answer all her questions. So, I’ll just work through them one by one.

First one, how long is the scar going to be? Well, this depends on the size of the implant, but for a moderate implant, under 300 cc, 4 to 4.5 cm. Over 300 cc, 4.5 to 5 cm.

The support program is another question. We have a very intensive support program. We look after you afterwards, unlimited follow-up appointments, and we like to see you every year. If you’re too worried about your operation, any aspect of it, we’ve got a 24 hour help line so you just need to contact us on that.

How long does a breast implant last? Again, this is a difficult one to answer. The implant manufacturers give a lifetime warranty. Most implants are going to 15 years, so we think that it would be good for at least that long. But even after 15 years, if you haven’t got a problem, we don’t really recommend replacing them. We can possibly scan them, normally with an ultrasound, just to assess their integrity.

Feeling in nipples, normally that’s normal afterwards. The nerve to the nipple comes in from the side. I normally see it in the operation, so if nipple sensation is particularly important to you, please mention that to me before the operation and I’ll make extra special sure that I do preserve those nerves as well as I can. But in most cases, nipple sensation is preserved. You may have a little bit of numbness just above the scar in the inframammary fold at the lower part of the nipple.

The next one is overnight stay. I normally do like to keep people in overnight. For instance, I’ve done two breast augmentations earlier on today, and they’ll be going home tonight. Sometimes people prefer to go home on the evening of surgery and that’s fine.

Pre-operation checks, I do like these. Normally, a nurse will give you a ring about a week before, just go over and check for any illnesses, any allergies, and if necessary arrange for blood tests and heart tracings.

If you’ve never had an anaesthetic, this lady asks me are there any risks if you’ve never had an anaesthetic. I use the same anaesthetist I’ve used for years. If you’re ASA, that’s American grading of anaesthetic risk. If you’re ASA Grade 1, that means that you’ve got no heart problems, no lung problems, it’s actually safer to have an anaesthetic with an experienced anaesthetist then it is probably to drive home from your clinic appointment. In ten years of practice, with over a thousand breast enlargements, I’ve never had a serious problem with anyone having a medical problem.

The size of the breast implant, you’re going to really decide this with our nurses and myself before the operation. We’ll give you an opportunity to really look at the sizes. I’ll go through those a little bit, what’s involved in sizing in another video.

Painkillers, immediately after the operation, you will be fairly numb and no pain from the operation. It does get more painful that evening, and we will give you painkillers, paracetamol and normally Celebrex with codeine. So you’ll be given all of those painkillers and your first appointment and instructions on exactly what to do in the first week. When your first consultation is, we’ll give you all of that before you leave.

The recovery period, that really does vary a lot, and normally I say keep mobile for the first week. Not too much aerobic activity. If everything’s okay with your first dressing at a week, when we trim the stitches, you can start driving yourself at that point and then slowly start building up your activities and gym and all those physical activities over three to four weeks following surgery.

So I hope that’s been useful. These are just some of the questions a lady asked me earlier on. So I thought I’d discuss those with you. As I’ve mentioned, we got lots more information on these topics. We have got a number of podcasts which you can find on our website and they’re cosmetic surgery podcasts. You can find them on iTunes as well, which goes through a lot of the questions in an audio format so you can listen to it at your leisure. Thanks very much for watching the video.