FAQ mastoplasty, mastopexy

Q. Is breast augmentation surgery painful?
A. No. After the operation, a slight soreness may occur in the mammary region, but it can easily be kept under control by analgesics.

Q. Will breasts look natural after a breast job?
A. The breasts operated on with additive mastoplasty are similar to natural breasts, provided that the shape and the size of the implant used are adequate for the patient’s body, that they are placed under the pectoral muscle and that no complications occur during implant contracture.

Q. Are operated breasts recognizable by the touch?
A. If the implants are positioned correctly and if there are no reactions by the body (such as implant contracture), the operated breasts are very natural to the touch.

Q. After additive mastoplasty surgery, are the breasts colder than the rest of the body?
A. Definitely not, because the implants reach the same temperature as that of the body.

Q. After additive mastoplasty surgery, will I be allowed to breast-feed?
A. Many women with breast implants breast-feed their children safely. Recent studies show that the women with breast implants don’t present higher silicone levels in their milk than those with no implants. However, breast implants can interfere with the women’s capability of breast-feeding if the mammary incision is around the areola.

Q. What happens to operated breasts during pregnancy?
A. During pregnancy, operated breasts will behave like normal breasts and, thus, they will grow and they will be subject to all the usual pregnancy-related modifications. The degree of enlargement will vary with the single women but, obviously, it will be also influenced by the size of the implants.

Q. When will I be able to travel by plane or to dive?
A. There are no troubles with flying or diving with silicon gel implants. Sometimes, the prostheses filled with saline solution (water) may leak and, thus, deflate if they are subjected to excessive hydrostatic pressure.

Q. After additive mastoplasty surgery, will I lose sensibility on my nipples?
A. Nipple sensibility might be reduced or increased after breast augmentation surgery. Very often, this is a temporary situation that seldom becomes permanent.

Q. After surgery, is the use of a bra obligatory or advisable?
A. After surgery, the use of a strengthened bra is advisable for about one month, after which the patient will be free to decide whether to wear a bra or not.

Q. May I get a tan in the open air or in a beauty parlour if I have implants ?
A. Yes, but at least two months after the surgical operation and, anyway, at least after one year with respect to the scars caused by the introduction of the implants.

Q. After surgery, when will I be able to do sport again?
A. Normally, after an additive mastoplasty operation you should wait about one month before resuming any kind of activity, especially sports activity. Moreover, it is advisable to limit physical activities and the exposure to the sun until the incision has completely healed, in order not to cause sweat near the incision during the healing process.

Q. Are silicone implants safe?
A. Yes. Scientific studies have shown that there’s no evidence for silicone implants to be responsible for serious illnesses. Women are constantly exposed to silicone every day. In fact, silicone may be contained in many objects that are normally present at home, such as polishing and tanning substances, hand creams, soap, food and linings.

Q. How do breast implants influence mammography?
A. Breast implants can complicate mammography only if they are placed above the pectoral muscle (subglandular prostheses). If, on the contrary, breast implants are placed under the pectoral muscle, the radiologist will have no difficulties in performing the test.

Q. Is it possible to remove implants and, in the affirmative, how long after the first operation?
A. Yes. Implant removal is an easy surgical operation that can be performed anytime, and the patient will come back to the condition before breast augmentation surgery.

Q. Can silicone implants cause breast cancer?
A. No studies have ever proved that the implantation of silicone prostheses can cause or increase the incidence of breast cancer.

Q. Could the implant introduction cause stretch marks on the breasts?
A. Only in the event that too large implants are used on a patient whose skin is not very elastic.

Q. How many kinds of prostheses are there on the market and what influences their choice?
A. The prostheses used in additive mastoplasty are made up by an external silicone cover and by an internal part that can be made of silicone gel or saline solution. Other substances used in the past, such as soya oil or else, have been gradually gone out of use.
Depending on the breast shape that the surgeon wants to obtain, it is possible to chose round, anathomical or drop-shaped implants.
The external surface of mammary prostheses may be smooth or rough (texturized prostheses).
The prostheses with smooth surface have a slightly softer cover and are less likely to be noticed by the touch.
Texturized prostheses are instead a bit more firmer and, today, more used than the smooth ones because their “rejection” is lower (the so-called implant contracture) once they are introduced into the mammary region.

Q. How long do breast implants last?
A. The most important implant manufacturers (Mc Ghan, Mentor, Silimed) guarantee breast implants for about ten years, after which they recommend to replace them in order to prevent any deformation or deflation of the implants due to their use. Actually, if there are not particular problems, implants can be maintained indefinitely with no worries.

Q. I’m 15 and I have already very large breasts (44). What kind of problems may I have in the future?
A. Gigantomastia (or mammary hypertrophy), that is the excessive increase of breast volume and weight, can cause troubles such as backache, especially in the cervical and in the lumbar regions, chest pain, sometimes breathing difficulties, ulcerations in the submammary fold and at the level of the bra-straps, as well as psychological and social problems which may condition women’s everyday life and/or sports and sexual activity.

Q. What causes the excessive increase of breast volume and how can it be reduced? Is a diet enough?
A. In the women who are not overweight, the excessive breast volume is congenital. In a woman in her 20s, about 50% of breast volume is represented by glandular tissue and about 50% by adipose tissue (fat). While getting older, the percentage of glandular tissue diminishes to be replaced by adipose tissue. To reduce the size of too large breasts, dieting and physical exercise are not enough because they don’t act on the percentage of glandular tissue, which can be reduced only by an operation of reductive mastoplasty.

Q. After reductive mastoplasty surgery, will I be allowed to breast-feed normally?
A. The women who have undergone reductive mastoplasty may have difficulties in breast-feeding, especially when the breast volume reduction has been considerable.

Q. How and where are the incisions made in breast reduction surgery?
A. Depending on the extent of the reduction (small, medium, large), the incisions can be made only around the areola or extend vertically down to the submammary sulcus and along the lower fold of the breast (the so-called anchor-shaped or inverted T incision). Reductive mastoplasty will leave permanent scars which will be more or less visible and which, however, will be hidden by the bra or the swimsuit.

Q. Is breast reduction surgery painful?
A. No. After the operation, a slight soreness may occur in the mammary region, but it can easily be kept under control by analgesics.

Q. I’m 38 and after two pregnancies my breasts, that before were 38, became smaller and sagging. What can I do to change back into my previous condition?
A. The suitable operation for your problems is breast-lift, technically called mastopexy. The women who come for this operation are mainly the ones whose breasts have lost their original shape and volume due to pregnancies, breast-feeding, gravity force and ageing process. The mastopexy operation is particularly indicated for the women with small and sagging breasts because, in case of very large breasts, the cosmetic result achieved may be thwarted afterwards by the effects of gravity. If the patient wishes to lift her sagging breasts and recover their lost volume, it is advisable to integrate mastopexy with the introduction of a small breast implant.

Q. I would like to lift my breasts without having implants. Is there an operation providing such a result with no scars?
A. No. The mastopexy operation will necessarily leave scars, whether only around the areola (in small round-block mastopexy) or also vertically down to the submammary sulcus (vertical scar mastopexy) or also along the lower fold of the breast (the so-called inverted T incision or anchor-shaped mastopexy).

Q. Are the scars caused by mastopexy and reductive mastoplasty very evident?
A. Mastopexy and reductive mastoplasty cause scars whose quality will depend not only on the surgeon’s ability but also and mostly on the patient’s congenital healing capacity.

Q. After breast reduction surgery, will the nipple sensibility be the same?
A. Sometimes, sensibility troubles in the areola and the nipple may occur, but in most cases they are momentary and very seldom are they permanent.