After insertion of breast implants, I see my patients regularly.
Immediately after the operation, the patient is seen the day after the procedure (at my office following out-patient surgery or in their room if the patient spent a night in hospital) as it is necessary to check there is no bruising that could promote the occurence of a capsular contracture.
What are the risks linked to bruising?
A bruise is bleeding around the implant that will deform the breast and cause considerable pain. In this case, it is essential to operate again to drain the blood and find the bleeding blood vessel.
The patient is then seen again in the following days to ensure healing is going well and there is no infection.
The infection of an implant is very rare but very serious as it is generally necessary to remove the implant to treat the infection if treatment with antibiotics is unsuccessful.
Monitoring after the operation
A post-operative visit at one month helps ensure progress is satisfactory, that sport and bathing can be resumed, and that the compression bra can be removed.
Then, monitoring is more spread out and I see the patient at three months, six months, and 1 year after the operation.
The result in terms of feel, size, and appearance of the breasts is obtained after about six months. However, the final scar is obtained after a year.
After this period I see the patient after two years, 5 years, and finally 10 years.
At that point, I prescribe a breast MRI to check there are no silicone leaks as the breast implants are made of silicone gel surrounded by a silicone shell that can become permeable after a few years resulting in leakage.
When is it necessary to change breast implants?
Regardless, it is currently recommended to change the implants after 15 years as breast implants are not made to last a lifetime, and changing healthy implants is less painful and less complicated than changing ruptured implants. When changing the implants, the patient can choose to keep the same size, increase the size, or decrease the size of the implants.