How to properly care for breast implants

Getting breast implants is a major and life-changing decision that can help dramatically improve your body shape. But proper care is necessary to help improve the longevity of your breast implants and to maintain that perfect breast shape after breast augmentation. Here’s how to maintain and care for your breast implants.

What is breast augmentation?

Breast augmentation is a cosmetic surgery procedure done to increase the size and enhance the shape and size of your breasts. Getting breast augmentation can help you achieve a curvier and sexier body line and benefit you by:

• Increasing the cup size of your breast
• Enhancing your breast shape
• Restoring volume and fullness to your breast
• Correcting uneven breasts
• Fixing saggy breasts

Typically, you can increase your breast cup size by two main types of breast augmentation surgery:

• Fat grafting
• Breast implants

Fat grafting is where you transfer your fats from other parts of your body to your breasts. And then there is the more popular option – breast implants. Breast implants are usually preferred as they give your breasts a more definite shape and way more voom in increasing cup size. And they give much longer lasting results than fat grafting too.

Reasons for getting breast augmentation

There are many different reasons why many women seek breast augmentation and that should not be frown upon. In fact, breast augmentation actually has one of the highest satisfaction rate as compared to all other cosmetic procedures.

How to properly care for breast implants

If you want your breast implants to last, you will need to take steps to maintain and care for your implants. Caring for your implants isn’t rocket science, its actually pretty simple and easy. So if you want your breast augmentation results to last a long time, follow these steps:

1. Follow post-op and aftercare instructions

Proper care for your breast implants starts with following post-op and aftercare instructions religiously. For one, your plastic surgeon will definitely advise you to wear a support bra or surgical bra during the recovery period. The lack of support after breast enhancement may lead to breast sagging over time so do not skip that step and if possible, wear the support bra for as long as possible.

For more post-op and aftercare instructions, read our article on breast augmentation aftercare and post-op instructions and follow them!

2. Give yourself time to heal

After surgery, do not try to hasten the recovery process. Take it slow and give yourself ample time to heal. Avoid heavy lifting and upper body exercises for 4-6 weeks or for as long as possible. Most women can return to work after 7~10 days but feel free to take more time off for recovery if possible. Be patient and give yourself time to heal. Don’t forget that your long term results depend on how well you heal after breast surgery!

3. Wear the right bra

After surgery, you will be given a surgical bra to wear for several weeks. Wear this support bra for as long as possible until your plastic surgeon tells you its ok to switch to wearing regular bras. Because underwires may irritate breast incisions, especially those under the breast, even when you can start to wear regular bras, do start by wearing a bralette (regular bra without an underwire) first, before slowly transiting to an underwire bra.

In fact these days, many women are switching to bralettes so there’s gotta be some very comfortable yet pretty bralettes out there! So just be patient, take it slow and you should be able to wear an underwire bra again a few months after surgery.

Your breasts will also undergo many dramatic changes after your surgery, with all that swelling and getting used to your new implants. So give your breasts time to settle and soften before going for a big lingerie haul.

4. Moisturize your breast

Not many women do that but moisturizing your skin will help it retain its elasticity. Choose a good moisturizer for your body and use it daily!

5. Maintain a healthy weight

After breast augmentation, do maintain a steady weight with a healthy diet and an exercise routine. Large weight fluctuations can cause the sagging of breast tissues which might result in the need for a breast lift to correct the sagging. So avoid such problems by maintaining a healthy and steady weight.

6. Regular breast implant checkup

It is recommended to get an MRI three years after the initial surgery, and then every two years after that. Going for regular checkups are also part of taking proper care of your implants and can help you extend the life of your implants and buy you more time before you need breast implant replacements.

Conclusion

Breast augmentation is not just a getting-big-boobs-and-end-of-story decision. In fact, it is very much a life-changing decision which requires regular care and maintenance.