Breast Implant Removal And Revision

The results of breast augmentation surgery can last for many years, but the appearance of your breasts may change over time. At some stage you may get to the point of needing further surgery to have your current implants removed and possibly replaced. In this setting you can therefore benefit from modern breast implant technology. Also, larger implants may make your breasts sag or may make them feel out of proportion, prompting you to explore alternative options.

Many women choose to have their implants removed and replaced for various reasons. These include wishing for a change in volume or shape of your breasts and treatment of capsular contracture. There are many options you can choose, including implant replacement and mastopexy surgery to remove excess skin and rejuvenate your breasts.

Removing implants can reduce your breast volume and shape, giving a similar result to a breast reduction. Your options are partly determined by what volume of breast tissue remains following the removal of the implants. Some women are happy to accept a significantly smaller breast for the sake of having no implants. When implants are removed from a previously expanded breast, not only is the volume reduced but the form of the breasts is then often flat and shapeless. Previous scar patterns may also sit differently depending on how your breast settles after implant removal.

Depending on the shape of your breasts, removal alone may suffice, but in the event of your breasts losing form, Sinclair Gore can also reconstruct your breast shape with breast lift (mastopexy) surgery in the same operation to ensure you go forward with better shaped breasts.

With a higher implant to breast tissue volume ratio, or an altered breast shape, additional procedures may be required in the form of a breast implant exchange. This involves exchanging your old implants for new modern implants, which might be the same size, smaller, or larger; what implant is chosen depends on your aesthetic goals. Implant sizes, shapes and surface coatings can chosen depending on many variables and are determined by what you want to achieve. Mr Gore often uses high-friction coated implants in the setting of revision breast implant surgery; this enables him to provide naturally-shaped breast outcomes using anatomically (tear drop)-shaped implants where such choices may otherwise not be feasible.

If scar tissue around the implants has contracted causing deformation or pain (known as capsular contracture) it may be necessary to remove a layer of this scar tissue (capsulectomy) as part of any operation. This further reduces the soft tissue layer overlying a breast implant to a degree but does allow the remaining skin, fat and breast tissue to drape more naturally over another new implant. 

As such, breast implant revision surgery is often a different surgical procedure from breast augmentation or a breast lift on its own, but can give you the results you want as you age.