Your breast enlargement operation simply explained

Imagine coming into hospital one morning, having breast surgery, staying overnight, and then going home the next morning. That’s how straightforward breast enlargement is for most women who have it.

1-2 hours operating time

Usually you’ll go to sleep under a general anaesthetic, and your operation will take from one to two hours.

Your surgeon will have decided at your initial consultations, and shown you, where the best place is for your incisions. Once you’re asleep the surgeon will make a small incision to create a pocket under your breast.

My surgeon explained exactly what would be involved to get the surgery done and immediately made me feel reassured that it was a straight forward procedure he had done many times before.LM

The smallest incisions

At Mybreast we pride ourselves on making the smallest, best concealed incisions possible for your breast implants. These are usually 4 to 5 centimetres long, and are either hidden in the crease under your breast, or around your nipple. In some cases of breast surgery, the incisions for the implants are hidden in the armpit. The most common incision is in the infra-mammary fold (i.e. under the breast crease).

Inserting your breast implants

Your surgeon will insert your implants through the incisions, either under or over the pectoral muscle (feel it by pushing your hand against your hip — it’s the tight band at the front of the armpit). The position of the implant will have been decided between you and your surgeon at your consultations. Compare the advantages of the 3 positions here.)

The surgeon even talked me through a computer generated example of what happens, answering all my questions along the way.EL

Closing your incisions

Once the cavities that contain your breast implants are dry, your surgeon then closes the incisions with stitches. These are either dissolvable, or may need to be removed after two weeks.

A drain may be used on each side to remove unwanted fluid from around your breast implants. The drain is removed the morning after your breast surgery.

Preparing to go home

Your breast implants need to be held in their new position, so you may initially have medical tape across your chest, or be placed in a tight-fitting sports bra, which is supplied compliments of Mybreast. This bra needs to stay in place for a 2-4 week period after breast enlargement surgery, during which you must restrict your activity so as not to disturb the breast implants.

Read about the quick recovery time after breast augmentation surgery