What It Means to “Upgrade” Your Breast Implants

July 01, 2022

There have been many many advancements in the plastic surgery industry over the decades, and one of the procedures that has seen a large number of these advancements, thanks to research and technology, has been the breast augmentation.

If you’re someone who has had a breast augmentation in recent years, you may also be that person that likes to keep on top of the most recent developments in this surgical category. You might be wondering, hmm, when it comes to my augmentation, is it a good idea for me to change it up?

You may want to change from saline to silicone breast implants. Or you may want to go larger or smaller. You may want to change your implant placement or add a fat transfer.

Whichever revision breast augmentation you may be considering, at The Plastic Surgery Clinic we can perform a variety of the revisions listed. We can also typically see you for your revision breast augmentation, even if we didn’t originally perform your surgery, depending on a few key factors that we’ll review with you prior to booking your complimentary consultation.

Changing Your Breast Implants

The thing to keep in mind when you come to us considering a revision breast augmentation is that we take any request for a revision surgery very seriously and on a case by case basis.

We understand the need for change and we love to make our patients happy, but having multiple surgeries does come with certain risks, and patient safety is always our number one priority. In addition, going through the recovery process a second time following a revision surgery can be challenging and we like to ensure that our patients have as smooth, speedy, and comfortable recovery as possible with excellent final results.

So if we’re talking about a revision breast augmentation from the perspective of recovery, then we’d say that if you’re seeking to change out your implant from saline to silicone implants, for instance, but you want to keep the same implant placement, then this is probably the easiest revision breast augmentation from a recovery standpoint.

Although saline implants are perfectly safe and comfortable implants, and absolutely do not need to be changed if you’re not experiencing any issues, we have had many patients seeking out the new generation of cohesive gel implants. Cohesive gel implants maintain their shape while feeling super soft and natural, and are less likely to ripple and have the extra added advantage of not leaking in case of a rupture.

Adding a Fat Transfer to Your Original Breast Augmentation

Many breast augmentation patients are also coming to us interested in adding a fat transfer to their original breast augmentation procedure. This is a particularly useful addition if you’re looking for a bit more cleavage or to improve the spacing between your breasts, and is definitely doable as a revision breast augmentation.

That being said, from a surgical perspective, the surgery is a bit more involved as it includes liposuction. When we perform a fat transfer we need to remove fat from areas of the body where you may have a little more, for instance from the thighs or abdomen, harvest it, and then re-inject into target areas of the breasts.

This can be a plus if you’re looking to get rid of some unwanted pockets of fat on the body, but may require a slightly longer recovery.

Changing Your Breast Implant Placement

Changing your breast implant placement is probably the most complex revision breast augmentation that we perform, but we do it all the time.

Subfascial breast implant placement has become very popular in recent years, due to its comfort levels as well as how naturally the implants sit and move in the subfascial position, and we have many patients wanting to remove their original implant form under the muscle, for instance, to the subfascial placement.

Changing your implant placement is in no way a requirement if you’re happy with the way your implants feel in their original position. But in other cases if you have noticed that you have a bit of scar tissue or you feel your implants aren’t sitting as nicely as they used to, you may want to consider changing their placement.

Whichever revision breast augmentation you may be considering, we’re here to help you with your decision and outline what the procedure, recovery, and final result will look like each step of the way.