BREAST AUGMENTATION

It is a highly satisfactory operation that improves the patients’ self-esteem but requires responding to a series of questions.

1. In the first place, choose the most appropriate date for the operation. You’ll need to dispose of available time in order to recover.
2. Be at a more or less stable and appropriate weight.
3. Follow a well-balanced healthy diet, avoiding stringent diets. Your body needs to have sufficient nutrients available in order to undergo a surgical operation.
4. Be free of serious ongoing illnesses.
5. For smokers, keep your tabaco consumption under control for 15 days prior to the operation. Ideally, it’s best to give up, but if this isn’t possible then it’s necessary to reduce to a minimum the number of cigarettes you smoke a day.
6. Look for help with domestic chores prior to undergoing surgery. This should not be a motive for stress after surgery either.
7. Have the post-operative bra prepared. The doctor will give you instructions about its characteristics.

Breast augmentation is performed with a small incision which is placed, according to the anatomy of the patient and the preferences of the plastic surgeon, around the areola, in the furrow underneath the breast or the armpit. The incision is designed to make the resulting scar almost invisible. Through the incision the mammary tissue is lifted, a pocket is created and the implant is inserted directly underneath the mammary tissue or underneath the pectoral muscle. Some drain tubes are then connected. These are removed after a few days and a bandage or dressing is applied on the breasts.

Once the breast augmentation operation has been performed, after spending a night at hospital, the patient can return home as long as they are accompanied. Arm movement should be limited for the first week, as should physical exertions, lifting or carrying weight.

The same day as the operation you can get up, sit in the armchair and walk around. You can leave your house and go for a walk as long as you avoid public transport and overcrowded places. You must ensure avoiding injuring or causing contusions in the area operated on.

You must also take the medication prescribed by the doctor, including analgesic painkillers that will be progressively reduced.

Return to work between 1 and 3 weeks.

From after the first week complete mobility will be recovered, although lifting or carrying weights and making exertions should be avoided for up to 3 weeks after the operation. You can also start driving 7 to 10 days after the operation. Therefore, according to the patient’s livelihood, you can return to work at one or other moment. In less demanding physical jobs you can return to work within a week, and with more physically demanding jobs within 2 to 3 weeks.

As far as sleeping is concerned, you should sleep face up for the first month so that the tissues heal properly.

Regarding smoking habits, the tissues heal better when there is no tabaco inhalation, so it’s necessary to give up smoking for the first 15 days.

With respect to pain, this is variable from one patient to the other. Many patients comment that the process has not been especially painful, however others feel some discomfort; it depends on each person’s pain threshold. Nevertheless, we always give extensive guidelines on analgesic painkillers in case it is necessary.

From the first month after the operation you can start to take light exercise, and from 2 months you can do any sport.

You should also be careful about exposure to sunlight for the first 6 months after the breast augmentation operation.

You must wear the post-operative bra 24 hours a day during the first month, as well as the mammary belt if the doctor considers it necessary.